When You Are A Bad Guy
by Fawns123
Summary: Young Do's hand paused close to her cheek, hesitating, before he gave in to the temptation and caressed her soft cheek gently with his knuckles. She shivered noticeably and Young Do felt something stir inside him. He withdrew his hand, suddenly afraid of his own emotions. He clenched his hands into fists by his side, while trying to calm whatever had kindled inside him. CYD/OC
1. Chapter 1: Stretch Your Wings

**_• I don't own Heirs._**

**_• English isn't my first language, and my grammar isn't brilliant. Please correct my mistakes, so that I can learn. :) _**

**Stretch Your Wings**

Keeping her head down, she tugged up the scarf wrapped around her neck to hide more of her face, even though a dark curtain of her hair hid it well enough already from sideways.The train had arrived, and with shaking nerves, she quickly climbed in it. A medium sized bag hung from her shoulder. She had only taken the things which were necessary, to keep her father from suspecting her for sometime. She took a seat in the almost empty train, and felt glad that she choosed midnight to run away.

The train began moving slowly, in the direction of Seoul, and she kept glancing at the sliding doors of the train, imagining her father bursting through them and dragging her back home through her hair. She clasped her trembling hands together, reassuring herself that everything would turn out okay. Tomorrow, she would arrive in Seoul, find a place for living, find a place to make a living, and live her life happily and peacefully. She would be able to breath in fresh air whenever she wanted to, she would get to eat everyday, no one would set a certain limit to her sleeping hours or eating portions, she would listen to music all the time, she would dance, sing, laugh and cry whenever she felt like it. To sum it up: she would be free.

_Free; _a word that made her eyes wet with tears. An excitement bubbled up in her chest and made her heart flutter. She gazed out of the window at the blurry images and smiled grimly. _I am going away, Eomma, but I will come and visit you after some time. Wish me best!_

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Na Ri's excited nerves had forbidden her to sleep at all during her journey. She had never travelled alone before and now she had travelled all the way from Gyeonsung to here, all alone. Her excitement was of another level when she walked through the bustling morning streets of Seoul. Her fears vanished temporarily, and she grinned, spinning around, walking like a bird flying in air after having escaped a long period of imprisonment from a cage; fluttering its wings and cherishing the freedom. People were too busy in their world to pay any heed to her.

She bought a newspaper then headed for the nearest restaurent to eat something good and have a cup of coffee.

She ordered steak, and her mouth literally watered at its sight and enticing aroma.The only time she had meat was when she was 12, nearly 6 years ago, when her Eomma had sneaked pork ribs in. Her father was a strict vegetarian and believed that meat was bad for health.

Na Ri tried not look like someone eating steak for the first time, but she couldnt help herself and devoured the steak in 10 minutes. She craved for more, however she knew better to use money wisely. She promised herself to make lots and lots of money, and have steak every other day.

Sipping coffee at the same restaurant, she marked the places for small apartments for rent on the newspaper. She had taken enough money from her father's drawer for her to live some weeks peacefully, but she needed to find work soon, so that she could also graduate high school without worry.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

It didnt take her long to find an apartment for rent. It was small, yet it was more than enough for her; a heaven compared to the place she lived in with her father. Because this was a place where she could do whatever she wanted.

She paid the landlord rent and deposit.

Full stomach and calm nerves, Na Ri was now finally feeling the exhaustion settling in her bones, so she decided to slack today and look for jobs tomorrow. She threw away her scarf and coat, and as her head hit the soft pillow, Na Ri, for a brief moment, wondered if she were dreaming again like she had done many times, before slipping away towards actual dreams.

Making money was harder than Na Ri had expected. 4400 per hour wasn't what she had in mind. She stared at the restaurant with a **_"Hiring part timers"_** board. She had a childish urge to sit down there and cry in protest.

It took her three days to finally land two jobs that paid well. Well enough for part time jobs, Na Ri had accepted, and started working.

From morning to after noon, she delivered food from Naesang Fries and Chicken, spending her time on a scooty, in Seoul. She was not familiar with either Seoul or the scooty, but a colleague had helped her throughout her first week and she had picked it quick enough. She was nervous and a bit shy at work on her first day, but the moment she was on the road, driving the scooty with cold yet kind wind caressing her flushed cheeks and flying her hair around, her excitment from the first day had shown up again to greet her.

At night she scrubbed dishes at a Noddles Soup restaurant, which she found more tiring and boring than driving the scooty around.

Things were going well enough; almost everyone was amiable at work-- except for the manager at her night job and the flirty and annoying guy at her delivery job who was always asking for her number and had refused to believe her when she told him she didn't posses a cell phone.

Eun Bi, a short haired girl with a comical nature at work had now became a friend. Eun Bi often helped Na Ri out with things she failed to comprehend, and also helped her avoid the annoying flirtatious guy. She claimed Na Ri was too innocent to be left alone in this city.

It was also Eun Bi who introduced Na Ri to the world of dramas and movies. Having never been allowed a television, Na Ri was new to the world of dramas and movies, although Eun Bi had assumed it was because she lived in an orphanage. That was what Na Ri had told everyone, that she lived at an orphange in Gangwon after her mother passed away 6 years ago.

Leaving her home and living a normal life made Na Ri feel more than ever at how much she had missed on living. She was starting to adjust and relax in her new life.

On the days off when she was not eating or sleeping or having kdrama marathons with Eun Bi at Na Ri's place, she would put on a coat and leave her apartment, merely strolling in the streets, feeling the cold wind, which she had always loved to do, even in winter. These were very simple things, but they managed to refresh her every time.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

It was the third week of the work, and fifth delivery of the day, then she was free to go to a mobile shop afterwards to buy herself a cellphone.

The area she was supposed to deliver in was hard to find, and she was late when she reached there, having stopped a few times to ask the directions. Warm sunlight shined on her pale skin when she drove through a deserted street and made a stop in front of a wide brown door. They must have heard her scooty's noise because the door opened before she could knock.

The man grumnled about her being late, and Na Ri apologized profusely.

The man merely pressed his lips together while paying and closed the door shut afterward. Na Ri sighed with a frown; it was not like someone was going to die of hunger if she were to be a few minutes late.

She rode her scooty again and decided to drive straight instead of turning around.

Na Ri had barely made it to the corner of the street when a van overtook her, driving too close, and knocked her over suddenly.

"Ya!" Na Ri yelled from the ground, stuck under her scooty.

The van didnt stop and continued to drive around the corner indifferently, but as she pulled herself out of her scooty and stood up, pulling up her coat's sleeve and checking at her bleeding elbow with a scrunched up face and watery eyes, she heard the van's roaring engine stop abruptly nearby. Na Ri scowled and wiped at her eyes roughly to get rid of tears. That scowl deepened when she saw her scooty's side view mirror lying broken on the ground. She strode towards the corner of the street, ready to scold the van guy through anger and tears. The muffled voices came into hearing before the van -- and the people coming out of it -- came into view as she rounded the corner.

Na Ri stopped dead.

Three men, their backs turned to her, were dragging two whimpering and weakly struggling girls towards -- what she assumed was -- a club. Royal Gate sign shone in blue sparkles over the dark doors. A tall and burly man, with thick and muscular arms crossed over his chest was standing outside it. His eyes ahead on the street, in the direction opposite from Na Ri.

"Please, let go." A low mumbling plea came from a girl. Na Ri couldn't see her face because her hair covered it, though she sounded younger than Na Ri.

"Shut up! Why didn't you drug them completely?" A man snapped at another.

"He likes it more when they are awake!" He snapped back.

Na Ri gaped at the scene before her horror.

Both girls were quite young, and apparently, semi conscious.

One man suddenly slapped the mumbling girl. That smacking sound startled Na Ri, and she stepped back and hid behind the corner. Leaning back against the wall, she placed one hand on her mouth and another on her palpitating heart. After a few disturbing moments, she heard the sound of the doors opening and closing. Then it was quiet. No mumbled pleas, no smacking sounds, no whimpering. Just Na Ri and her heavy heart.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

With a shaking hand, Na Ri turned the key again in her scooty. It gave a rumbling sound and quieted down miserably.

No phone, no scooty, and no way to reach police. She didnt have the time and money to hail a cab or ask around for police station. Her mind raced and her eyes darted in the bleak street, anxiously. Surely someone in the club would notice these girls and come to their aid.

However who could be that person that not only three men were bringing girls for him, but the club was also providing him with security? If security could be provided outside the club, then it could be provided inside the club too.

Her heart sank with the realisation.

Groaning, she bent over her scooty. What could be happening inside with those girls, she shivered to imagine.

They had been too young.

She sat up straight on her scooty. She needed to do something for them. She got off her scooty, put it in stand and carefully walked over to the corner, peeking over at club doors where the bulky guard stood, now joined by another guard, just as big and broad as him. She turned away from the corner and moved away in the opposite direction. Every restaurant and hotel had more than one exit.

Na Ri managed to find the club through another alley. The alleyway behind the club was just as empty as the previous one she was in. Na Ri wondered whether the club had something to do with it. She walked around and failed to find another entrance door to the club. Something kept pinching at her disconcerted heart, and she refused to give up like this.

Later on at some point in future, Na Ri would wonder what had overcame her that day that she had turned so brave and had failed to think about consequences of her actions. She had not even been thinking. The only thing on her mind at the moment were the two half conscious young girls, trapped inside those walls.

When she rounded another corner around the club, a short wall came into view, which seemed to lead into the club. Hope lit up in her chest as she took a few steps back and stood on her tip toes to squint over it. She could faintly discern a few cans, a ladder, a few dirty barrels and a rusty colored, closed door to somewhere. However, the wall was taller than her; about 6 feet while she herself stood at 5'4. She rushed back to her broken scooty and rolled it to the wall of the club. She parked it just beside the wall.

Na Ri inhaled a deep breath and exhaled slowly to calm her galloping heart while she climbed her scooty and placed her hands firmly on top of the wall. She was excited in a frightening sense as she pushed herself up and threw one leg over the wall, then pushed herself over completely. Soon she was lying on the dusty hard concrete floor on the other side of wall, inside the boundries of the club, clutching one dully aching foot. She could feel that she had most likely scraped her knees too.

Grimacing, she pulled herself to her feet, reminding herself that she didn't have time for this.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**Hello! This is a Choi Young Do/OC fanfic. The first few chapters will not be about Young Do, but I will upload them together so that we can get over the story telling part soon. I am excited for Young Do/OC scenes too, and believe me, I will give you many cute, sweet, sad or happy scenes of Choi Young Do; the ones we were deprived of in the drama. I personally believe Choi Young Do should have been the male protagonist. **

**_~Fawns_**


	2. Chapter 2: A Horrible Mistake

**_•I don't own Heirs._**

**_•English isn't my first language. Please correct my mistakes, so that I can learn. _**

**A _H__orrible _****Mistake**

The place smelled of carosin and alcohol as she made her way to the brown door. To her surprise, the door opened easily with little pressure as though someone had recently used it and had forgotten to shut it properly.

She slowly peeked in into the dimness. She could hear the blaring music of the club. When she was sure no one was on the other side of the door, she moved in quietly and shut the door behind her. It took her vision some seconds to adjust to the dimness of the hall before she could finally make out the ending of the hall and a door in the middle which was a small source of light.

Na Ri took a few quiet steps forward into the dim hallway, and fear gripped her so strongly and so suddenly that she had a sudden urge to turn back and run away from there. But she was more afraid of going back now than going further. If she went back now, her conscience would assault her for the rest of her life.

She carefully moved through the hallway and when she reached the corner of the hallway, she looked over carefully. There was another long hallway ahead with a closed door at the far end. A wide stairway went down near the door, likely to the dancing floor or to the bar. Lights reflected on the walls on the opposite side of the stairs. There was an empty space leading to a hall beside it.

Without warning, the door at the far end of the hall barged open and two men strode out of it. Na Ri immediately veered around, her heart rate shooting up. She could make out their words over the music as they neared her.

"I am not doing this job next time. Go through so much trouble for that brat and he says he didn't like the girls." A man said and Na Ri recognized the voice to be of the man who had slapped the girl.

"Why doesnt he just make it work with one of the girls from the club?" Another man's voice reached Na Ri, coming closer. She glanced at the door she had entered from and made herself ready to make a run for it at any given moment.

"What are we going to do with them now?" A third man raised the question.

The rest of their words turned muffled as they walked off into the hallway beside the door, and inspite of the fact that she was relieved, her heart continued to hammer in her ear. Na Ri swallowed dryly and gathering herself, came out of the corner, as quietly as she could and began to follow them forth into the next hallway because she knew they would lead her to the girls. She buttoned up her black coat with shaking fingers to hide the Naesang Fries Chicken shirt when she came into the view of the tastefully dressed people at the dance floor below, although no one was paying her attention.

Following them had indeed led Na Ri to the girls. She hid behind a big blue barrel, while the three men were in a room which she had presumed contained the drugged girls. All three of them left the room in about three minutes.

When they left through the same hallway, Na Ri knew it was her only chance before they could come back. She felt like a suspense novel protagonist as she slided over to the door and pushed it.

The door was firmly locked.

Na Ri held in a groan. Ofcourse, they were ought to lock this door. Just because she had found one door unlocked that didnt mean she would find every door unlocked.

Na Ri didn't believe it would work when she pulled out her hair pin and sat down on her knees, jiggling the hair pin into the lock, just as she had seen in a drama.

But it worked.

The lock clicked and Na Ri pushed open the door halfway, slowly. She slipped inside the small room and spotted the girls lying on different couches, gagged and tied up. They stirred and stared at her in wide eye wonderment. Na Ri closed the door behind her and rushed to them. She fumbled with the ropes binding them.

The girls straightened up upon realising what was she doing. The girl who had been slapped before, stumbled to her feet when Na Ri released her, and clumsily removed the gag from her mouth. She couldn't have been more than 15 or 16. They both then proceeded to help the other girl, who appeared to be older than Na Ri.

"Let's get out of here before someone comes back." Na Ri said to them urgently.

The two of them followed her as Na Ri lead the way outside. She grasped an arm of each girl. She knew they didnt have time. The girls stared at her with gratitude as they made their way through one hallway and then another.

Na Ri gulped in a few fresh breaths upon reaching the balcony and almost collapsed.

She couldn't believe they made it out so easily. However it was not a time to relax yet. Na Ri rushed over to the wall and told the girls to jump over immediately.

The girls quickly came forward and the younger one climbed the wall. Just as she was about to to jump outside, the older one gave a sharp gasp and turned to Na Ri.

"They have my bag!" She exclaimed with panic. The younger girl halted and turned to the older one.

"What bag?" Na Ri glanced back and forth between them.

"My bag that has my stuff. My money, identity cards, address, everything on them." The older girl elaborated in a shaky voice. "They can find me again with them."

"We will go to the police from here, dont worry. They wouldnt be able to harm you." Na Ri tried to reassure her.

The girls exchanged a dark look.

"You dont know these people and who they work for." The older girl said. "Police never helps. Going to police now is just the same as walking back in there."

Na Ri pushed her hair back roughly with her hands and bit her bottom lip. "They dont know your identity yet?" She asked wirh a tone of urgency.

"Ani, they don't."

Na Ri sighed deeply. "Jump over and run away. I will bring back the bag quickly. But don't wait for me. Go to your home. I will contact you later."

The older girl's eye shook, tears leaking out, and she startled Na Ri by enveloping her in a grateful hug that warmed Na Ri's insides. Na Ri gingerly patted her on the back while her heart sank with the thought of going back in there to retrieve the bag.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

She had managed to reach the room where the girls were kept tied up, despite her instincts screaming at her to go back. She was fumbling around for the bag when a voice startled her.

"Who are you?"

Na Ri whirled around with wide eyes, and fell back on the sofa. A short man, possibly a few years older than her, dressed in a plain white shirt and black trousers, stood before her with his hands tucked in his pocket and shoulders pushed back. His expressions were more curious than grave, but his droopy eyes, they were bloodshot red with dark shadows underneath.

He was also taking in her appearance. Na Ri's face flushed when his eyes darted shamelessly on her protruding chest wrapped in a black coat, then to her medium waist, the curve of her hips, to her skinny jeans clad legs, then back to her crimson face and her dark hair.

Na Ri struggled to form words.

"Where are the girls?" He sniffed and demanded hoarsely, his hard and suspicious eyes, piercing into her fearful ones.

Na Ri swallowed, and weighed down her chances of escape, as she flickered a glance towards the door, but the scary looking guy was blocking her way.

Na Ri slowly stood up, "I.. I came to.. came to deliver food." She said lamely.

The scary looking guy narrowed his eyes at her. Na Ri tried to edge side way, so that she could make a run for it.

"In here?" He derided her.

Na Ri took this moment to bolt towards the door, but the guy seemed to be expecting it. He was quick to grab her by her arms, and pin her against the closed door, roughly. She gave a strangled cry as her back hit the door, and spikes of pain vibrated into her spine. She tried to push at his chest, but he tightened his grip on her arms, digging his fingers into her soft delicate flesh, and she cried out in pain again, as her eyes flooded with tears.

Breathing heavily, Na Ri looked up at him dreadfully. The guy was staring straight into her wide round eyes with a tilted head and narrowed eyes. His expressions were unreadable. An unfamiliar odour emitted from him which didn't seem to be cologne. However, now looking at him up close, Na Ri noted something:

It had not been lack of sleep or anger. He was unmistakably high on drugs.

Two soft knocks came from behind Na Ri. The guy's gaze moved from her to the door, and he grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her aside, opening the door.

Na Ri visibly trembled beside him.

The men who had been around the girls, stood outside the door. Their bewildered eyes bounced from the guy holding her wrist, to her, and then to the empty room.

"Where are the girls?" One of them voiced the same question, the guy beside her had done earlier.

"Escaped." The guy beside her sniffed and replied coldly, while nodding his head towards Na Ri. The men gaped at her in disbelief.

"Don't stand like that. Go and look for them!" The guy snapped suddenly causing Na Ri to flinch. "As for me," he added, jerking his head towards her, "I have found someone else."

Na Ri could feel blood draining out of her face. She didn't have time to pray for the safety of the girls for she knew what was going to happen to [her] now. She was now, deeply regretting coming back for the bag.

The men bobbed their head up and down, hazily, not quite comprehending the situation, but still agreeing to it, and hurried out.

The guy started to drag her out of the room. Na Ri though, dug her feet down, resisted and sat down there, refusing to cooperate. When he turned back, looking down at her, looking ready to snap, she wanted to say something -- perhaps plead or something-- but her lips just couldn't form the words. She could only bite her bottom lip as tears swam in her eyes and she blinked up at him, pleading silently. All the bravery and courage she had shown earlier gone in an instant.

Ths guy screwed up his face in annoyance, and jerked at her wrist harshly. Na Ri jolted forward into his arms.

"Let's make a deal." He bent his head, leaning closer to a sniffling Na Ri's face who in response cringed away in his hold. "Be compliant and I will be gentle."

Na Ri choked back a sob trying to escape to her mouth.

"Deal?" He sniffed.

He took her wrist in his hold once again, and started towards the hallway. Just when they were about to turn a corner, and face the stairs, Na Ri finally found her voice. She let out a high pitched scream, trying to grapple with the guy to charge towards the other hall.

In the next moment, Na Ri found herself being hurled at a wall. A burst of pain exploded on a side of her forehead, as she hit the hard surface of the wall. She didnt even have a moment to gather herself before she was yanked to her feet by her hair. She shrieked due to the excruciating pain.

"Do you really think someone's gonna help you here?" He said venomously.

Na Ri howled in pain, as he dragged her by her hair to a door. He threw it open and flung her in. She hit the floor and the thobbing pain in her forehead intensified. She could feel every single beat of her heart as she touched a trembling hand to her stinging forehead. Something wet touched her fingers and she realised blood had oozed out from her forehead. She could faintly hear him say something to someone outside the door, as she caressed her aching scalp to try to ease the harsh sensation. He stepped in and closed the door shut, clicking in the lock. The booming music quieted down considerably.

He walked past her, and from where she was lying on the floor, Na Ri's eyes followed him through the black spots clouding her vision, to a lavish, king sized bed where he plumped down tiredly, and leaned against the headboard. He picked up something from his side table.

Na Ri's vision cleared up a bit and she could now discern the spacious room too. Her eyes snapped back to the guy who had dragged her here when she heard a moan from him...

He had been injecting something in his arm, which was already tainted with purplish spots.

He dropped his head back and his chest moved up and down in relaxed breaths. Eventually he raised his head after some moments and squinted at her.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**Please review**

**I had this idea about Choi Young Do and an OC, and I realised that putting it down on a paper _really _helps. I appreciate criticism, though try not to he mean :(**

**_~Fawns_**


	3. Chapter 3: I Want To Live

•**_I don't own Heirs._**

**_•English isnt my first language. Please correct my mistakes so that I can learn. _**

•**_TRIGGER WARNING: A BIT OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND DEPRESSIVE CONTENT IN THIS CHAPTER! __You can skip the beginning part, but if you don't feel like reading it. I am sorry for writing this, but it had to be a part of the story._**

**I ****Want To Live**

"Go, wash up." He roughly gestured towards a door on her left side, she had not noticed before.

Na Ri realised she must have looked like a mess, that was the reason he had not advanced on her yet.

She didn't move from her spot, naively thinking that perhaps, if she kept looking like a mess, he might leave her alone. However, he was having none of it. He got off the bed and started towards her. She cowered away, but he jerked her up though her hair. Na Ri howled in pain again, as he pulled her towards the bathroom, not letting go of her till he had placed her under the shower and turned it on. She collapsed on the marble floor and warm water splattered over her.

Na Ri was horror struck when he jumped in the shower in only his boxers, and drew back the shower curtain.

"Take off your clothes." He ordered her.

And for the first time since he had pinned her against the door in the other room, she opened her mouth to speak.

"Please.." That was all she could manage to utter while looking up at him. She faintly thought she sounded like the girl before who had been slapt.

He, for some reason, seemed to find her "please" arousing, as his eyes turned dark and he sniffed, licking his lips.

He pulled her to her feet -- gentler than earlier though -- and moved forward till she was pinned against the cold wall.

He leaned closer, water splashing on his back now "Please what?"

Na Ri squirmed, trying to turn away.

"Please stop." She croaked.

In a flash, he had jerked open her coat, its buttons flying everywhere. Na Ri shrieked and thrashed her arms, while he wriggled her coat off her shoulders and dumped it in a corner. With a firm hand on her waist, he spinned a panting Na Ri around, placing her under the shower and himself out. With one hand around her waist, he gripped the back of her neck with the other one, and pulled back her head, exposing her neck and cleavage to the water. It dribbled down her neck and to her Naesang Fries Fried Chicken shirt, causing it to reveal her black bra and the curves of her breasts. He took in her slender neck with water drops rolling down it, and placed his mouth on it. Na Ri shivered prominently. He proceeded to scrape his teeth against her skin. Whenever she tried to struggle, he would tighten his grip on her neck painfully.

It was only when he attempted to pull off her shirt that Na Ri began thrashing around frantically. Grunting with irritation, he delivered a sharp stinging slap to her face, accidentally throwing her into the wall. She once again hit her forehead against the wall, on the same spot she had hurt it earlier. The smacking sound echoed in the bathroom, accompanied by Na Ri's sobs, as she collapsed on the wet floor once again.

"Didnt I tell you?! If you are compliant, I would be gentle!" He snarled, pulling Na Ri back to her feet with her arm. She could feel a corner of her lip bleeding from where her teeth had dug into it.

Nonetheless, Na Ri totally refused to give up. She wanted to live and live well. This was not what she had imagined when coming to Seoul.

She continued to thrash wildly, but he only had to give one yank at her shirt for it to come into his hand in pieces. Panic was truly settling in her chest now. From where his hand reached for the button on her jeans, everything from there happened in just a few moments:

She scuffled with him, knocking him into a wall. He groaned and recovered quickly, pushing her aside and trying to pin her against the wall again. She in turn struggled ferociously and knocked him swiftly into the other wall.

However, in a panic stricken state, she had pushed him with too much force.

He struck his head in the wall with a cry, then hit the marble floor with a sickening crack. The next thing Na Ri saw was the picture of him lying on the ground with blood pooling around his head, and his dead eyes staring directly at the ceiling with a scrunched up face.

The shower continued to pour the water down on his pale and immobile body, mingling blood with water.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Clad only in her wet bra and jeans, Na Ri sat shivering and trembling on the wet bathroom floor with her knees pulled to her chest and her arms wrapped around them.

Her eyes and mouth were opened in a silent shock. She didnt know for how long she sat there like that.

Seconds, minutes, hours seemed to have passed. Even so, she couldn't get her gaze to slide away from his wide open eyes. Much of the blood had washed down the drain, but there were still traces of it on the floor. His face had gone deathly pale, and Na Ri was sure if she were to touch him -- not that she were going to -- he would be terrifically cold.

She had _killed _him.

She really had not meant to. She had just been trying to defend herself. She had just been trying to live.

And the thought caused Na Ri to snap out of it at once.

If she wanted to live, then she needed to move now.

Looking away from his pale face at last, she glanced around like a lost traveller. She wiped at her face and placed a palm on the wall for support to pull herself to her feet. Na Ri moved forward with wobbly legs to turn off the shower and the bathroom instantly turned quiet. She pulled back the shower curtain to step out, while the sliding sound of the curtains felt heavy on her ears.

Perhaps she had moved too quickly for her wobbly legs, combined with her wet feet, but when she stepped out of the shower, she slipped and landed on the same side she had hit the wall with twice before. The pain was more than her body could endure at this point and black spots completely took over her vision this time.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Na Ri woke up with a pounding pain in one side of her head. She ached all over, from head to toe. Touching her forehead and goaning in pain, she rolled over. The bathroom ceiling came into view.

_Bathroom ceiling. _

Na Ri jerked up, but yelped in pain when the movement opened new gates of searing pain in her head and river in her eyes. Feeling sick, and whimpering and clutching her forehead with one hand, she used the other to push herself off the cold bathroom floor and stand up on her feet. She immediately remembered she didnt have a shirt on. Her eyes involuntarily flickered towards [him, lying some meters away from her and she looked away immediately, wrapping her arms around herself protectively.

How long had she been out?

Na Ri started towards the door, but faltered for a while in uncertainty.

Taking a rallying breath, Na Ri turned the door knob shakily, stepping into the room. The clock hung above the door showed 12:13 am.

About 8 hours had passed since she had fainted on the bathroom floor. How could she have stayed unconscious for that long?

Her throat hurt when she swallowed dryly.

No one had found them yet. However someone was ought to wonder why he had been shut in his room all day long.

All things considered, _he _was obviously a spoiled rich brat. _His_ father must be some powerful man. It was not possible to do such dirty work with such boldness.

Na Ri knew they were going to do horrible things to her when they were to find out what she had done.

Fresh tears swam in her eyes; she had not intended to kill him.

Standing in th middle of the room, with her arms still wrapped around her half naked, fully trembling self, she felt more vulnerable than ever.

She bit her bottom lip to try to stop the quivering of her mouth. None of this would have happened if she had not left her home.

_Home_..

The mere word brought painful pangs to her heart.

But it all came down to one since sentence: she just wanted to live. Living the way her father wanted her to did not come anywhere near living. It was suffocating; choking on air, beathing in water, drowning in the dark loneliness of her small room which only contained a bed, a study table, a cupboard for clothes, books (lots of them)...and lastly, her abusive father.

Even in this moment, Na Ri didn't want to go back to that room, to that father. After her mother had died, no place had felt like home again. She had lost her home with her mother. Na Ri missed her mother terribly right now.

The world spun around her and she willed herself to sit down on the edge of the soft bed and inhale deep breaths.

Na Ri regarded the built in closet on her left side thoughtfully.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Na Ri had found a plain white shirt and a pair of black trousers, the same looking ones that were lying on the bathroom floor right now. As much as she despised the idea, she had to step back in the bathroom again to clean her messy face, although the first thing she had done was to pull the shower curtain over him.

Splashing warm water over her face faintly soothed Na Ri's senses. She cleaned her bloodied forehead, her lips and brushed her slender fingers through her half damp and fully tangled mess of a hair. Afterwards she discarded her bra and jeans on the bathroom floor and shuffled in the plain white shirt and the black trouser she had taken from the closet. She rolled the sleeves of her shirt back along with the trouser.

After she was done, she held the sink and leaned over it in exhaustion. It had required Na Ri great effort to do all this. She felt sick to her stomach, yet kept willing herself to stay strong. After drinking handfuls of water from the tap to ease her aching throat, she straightened up. Her reflection in the mirror blinked back at her. Her big doe eyes, which she considered the only beautiful feature of her face, were rimmed crimson and appeared hollow. She shuddered when the image of _his _dead open eyes crossed her mind.

She started for the exit, but remembered something and stopped. She took a deep breath and pulled aside the shower curtain slighlty. Careful not touch him or even look at him, she leaned forward and turned on the shower.

The sound of the shower could be heard even outside the bathroom, for which Na Ri was grateful. She stood in front of the locked door that lead outside. Every few seconds she would extend her hand towards its knob, then pull back in the mid way.

Na Ri tried to take a deep breath, but ended up sighing deeply. She reached over, clicked out the lock and turned the door knob. The music flooded in. Thumping heart, shaking hands, she stepped outside. Surprisingly no one stood outside on guard.

However, Na Ri was not that lucky.

Just as she hurried forward, aiming for the door she had used to enter the club, one familiar looking man appeared from the stairs and raked her with a suspicious gaze.

Na Ri hunched her shoulders and stopped dead, "He said I can go." She said in a high pitched voice quickly.

The man stepped forward and stood in front of her, blocking her way to her redemption. He eyed her up and down, regarding her clothes with confusion.

"He said that?" He raised his eyesbrows which appeared mocking to Na Ri, as though saying, Do I look like a fool to you?

Na Ri had constructed a perfect plan to tell anyone she would come across that he said she can go and he is in shower and he said not to disturb. But as the man stood looming over her, everything evaporated from her mind and she dashed down the stairs. She could hear him shouting and running after her. Her speed slowed as she entered the crowd. Bumping into people while making her way through the crowd as fast as possible.

_Exit!!! Exit!!!_ She shouted in her mind.

Na Ri threw a frantic look over her shoulder, and over the heads of people, she caught a glimpse of dark hair and clothes of the man trailing her. How she managed to find the exit, or more like the entrance to the club, she didn't know, though she did find it and pushing open the doors with all her might, she flew past the guards standing outside. She unintentionally took the road opposite to where her scooty had been knocked over by the van.

Na Ri vaguely heard shouts, and footsteps of more than one person hot on her tail, as she sped through a dark and empty alleyway.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**_Summary: Na Ri accidentally murdered some rich spoiled guy. and now she is trying to save herself from the goons. _**


	4. Chapter 4: Cha Ji Ah

**_•I don't own the Heirs._**

**_•English isn't my first language. Please correct my mistakes, so that I can learn._**

**_•Eomeoni means mother. A kind of formal way. Abeoji means father. Formal. Samchon means Uncle._**

**Cha Ji Ah**

The footsteps behind her slowly ceased and she naively thought that perhaps they gave up chasing her.

Reaching a corner, just as Na Ri slowed down a bit, hoping to catch some breath and give her throbbing forehead a break, a man jumped out from behind a corner. And if Na Ri had not ducked in time and shoot past him under his arm, she would have been caught. She continued to speed away -- stumbling once, but gathering her balance.

Na Ri halted abruptly, almost falling on her face, when another man appeared at the corner of the alley. Breathlessly, with black spots going in and out of her vision, she quickly veered into another alleyway. She had no idea where was she going and she felt that she was getting trapped from all sides. She could still hear footsetps approaching behind her, as she half imagined someone jumping out from another corner in front of her.

Hope swelled up in her chest, when Na Ri heard the faint noises of cars as she neared the end of the dark alleyway.

Na Ri came out onto the double roads, brightly lit with street lights, where cars were speeding by, and stumbled. Failing to gather her balance this time, she fell headlong onto the road, almost knocking out her teeth. Black spots appeared in her vision and she struggled to get up. Moving like a drunkard, she pushed herself up forcefully and waved a hand at the upcoming car.

But it didn't stop and sped past her.

They were just behind her and Na Ri began crying out of desperation and helplessness. She staggered forward onto the empty road and crossed over to the other road. In a delirium kind of state, with her vision half blinded by tears, black spots in and out, and her hearing sounding distant, she once again tumbled down on the side of the road. She knew instinctively that they were crossing the road behind her. With a burning will, she threw herself to her feet and attempted to pelt across the road.

However what Na Ri failed to perceive was the zooming car.

Time seemed to slow down as the driver of the car veered it to the right side in panic, crossing over to the other road and a truck hurtled at it with a booming, sickening sound of metal crashing with metal, over throwing the heavy car as though it weighed nothing.

But Na Ri didn't get to witness that horrific scene, for the driver of the second car behind the first one had not been as quick and the runway car collided with Na Ri, sending her tumbling over the bonnet, shattering the glass and blacking her out completely. Then the driver hit the break abruptly; a deadly mistake at such a high speed. The car overturned instantly, trapping Na Ri beneath it.

The men who had been chasing after Na Ri, backed away into the shadows quietly.

It wouldn't have been as easy for someone else to obtain information regarding someone's heart donation, but he was _Seo Nam Gil_. Currently one of the most richest man in South Korea. Ceo of FW company, the second child and only son of Seo Hyun Ju and Seo Dae Hee.

His niece, Cha Ji Ah had been travelling from Seoul International Airport to her new home with her parents ashes when a truck had crashed into her car. That had been the second time she was going to meet her Halmeoni and Halabeoji, and the third time to meet her Samchon.

Instead they had received a call from a hospital. Cha Ji Ah had been long gone before they even reached the hospital.

And the person who had unintentionally caused the accident that had killed Cha Ji Ah (and their driver.) who could be seen in the CCTv footage, partially in her senses, running across the road blindly with three men chasing after her, laid struggling for life in the same hospital. Her ribs and knee having suffered fractures, her heart too damaged to continue functioning and her face a disfigured mess. Doctors considered her survival nothing less than a miracle.

And it had been some odd irony that Cha Ji Ah's heart had been transplanted into that very girl who, it seemed, was responsible for her dying young.

It had not been hard for Seo Nam Gil to dig out the information about her and the people chasing her, but what he had found both appalled and intrigued him.

It had not surprised Seo Nam Gil when some men had walked into the hospital after 5 days of accident and had inquired about Hae Na Ri. It had taken them more time to find her identity than Seo Nam Gil. They were thirsty for the life of the girl whose chest now carried Cha Ji Ah's heart.

Nam Gil knew that if the girl were to wake up as Hae Na Ri, then she would wake up to a hell.

Seo Nam Gil wasn't a man who made decisons in the emotions of the moment. Nor he was particularly a kind man. He deliberately thought, considered and then decided. He did the same then. Or _at least_ he thought so.

Only a few people had known that Cha Ji Ah was no more because only a few had known that Seo Hyun Ju had a granddaughter, in the first place.

Cha Ji Ah's mother, Seo Soon Jong had fallen for a ordinary middle class man Cha Jae Hoon. Seo Hyun Ju and Seo Dae Hee had not approved of it in the least. Seo Nam Gil was 15 when Seo Soon Jong had flown to America with her fiance and married him there.

They had not heard from them since untill recently when Seo Nam Gil visited America and Cha Ji Ah herself had contacted him there. Seo Soon Jong had opened a small makeup brand, and her husband now had his own law firm. They had been living a comfortable life just the same.

There had been a family reunion with Seo Nam Gil met his Unnie after nearly 18 years, and also met his mischievous niece for the first time. The famous cold Seo Nam Gil had grown fond of Cha Ji Ah in little time, and Cha Ji Ah had insisted on visiting Seoul with her newly found Samchon. And that had been her first visit, secret from her Halmeoni and Halabeoji though.

Tragedy had stricked when Cha Ji Ah's parents suddenly passed away in a brutal car accident. (It seemed they had some bad luck with cars.) Shortly after, Nam Gil had introduced his parents to their granddaughter in America. That had been when Nam Gil had really seen his parents cry after a long rime. They were regretful to have deprived themselves of such great joy: a grandchild.

But they were most regretful towards not having met their daughter in all these years. They believed Cha Ji Ah looked a lot like her mother --which was true. That had been another reason that Cha Ji Ah easily made her way into their hearts.

Nam Gil had stayed in America for a month to help Cha Ji Ah take care of everything there and then move to Seoul, while Eomeoni and Abeoji returned.

However, when Nam Gil and Cha Ji Ah were about to return, Cha Ji Ah insisted on coming back a week later, for she had to bid farewell to some friends properly. Seo Nam Gil regretted not dragging her to Seoul with him at that time.

The only people who had attended Cha Ji Ah's funeral ceremony (and who knew about Cha Ji Ah's existence in the first place in Seoul) were Eomeoni, Abeoji, Nam Gil's cousin brother Park Hyun Shin and his only daughter Park Han Byul. The latter two never got to see Cha Ji Ah.

At least not the real Cha Ji Ah.

No one had argued when Seo Nam Gil had barged into the hospital and declared that there had been a mistake. The head of the office had offered tea to him, as identities were swapped, _Hae Na Ri_ was pronounced dead and _Cha Ji Ah_ had been prepared for a surgery on her deformed face.

All for one thing; Cha Ji Ah's heart that was beating inside Hae Na Ri's chest.

Their reaction was completely opposite to what he had expected. Nam Gil had thought that with Ji Ah's heart beating in someone's chest, a part of Ji Ah would still be alive even after she was gone. He had entertained a hope of comforting Abeoji and Eomeoni with Hae Na Ri.

Thus, Nam Gil had not seen it coming when his Eomeoni had delivered a sharp stinging slap across his face. Abeoji had been so upset that he had nearly collapsed while yelling at Nam Gil in about 8 years. Eomeoni told him in anger and frustration to get lost and not show his face again, but a shadow had flickered across both Eomeoni and Abeoji's face because those were the same words they had uttered 18 years ago to their daughter. The daughter who had not shown her face for the rest of her life.

They were outraged and deeply hurt, not only by the fact that Cha Ji Ah's face, her heart, even her identity was being handed over to someone else, but also by the fact that the girl was none other than the person whom they perceived as their granddaughter's murderer.

Nam Gil had seen the CCtv footage which clearly showed Hae Na Ri in an injured state, half delirious. The doctors who had treated Hae Na Ri had also informed Nam Gil that she had an injury inflicted on her head before the accident.

Nam Gil had a considerable amount of background information on her. The girl had lead quite a simple life... except for two recent events. In which for some reason, he felt there was more to it than he could see.

Hae Na Ri, he learned, had been briefly conscious for a few times in her three weeks at the hospital, but not enough to be in her proper senses as doctors kept her heavily anesthetized to make her healing procedure painless. Nam Gil had two of his paid guards guard her hospital room and one woman keep an eye on her constantly as her guardian, in case Hae Na Ri woke up and introduced herself.

And Hae Na Ri finally woke up in her right senses after more than three weeks.

Bright lights were the first thing Na Ri saw as she tried to blink open her sensitive eyes. She felt cold. There was something covering her face. With half opened eyes, she reached a hand to touch her face. Bandages all over her face, she felt.

"Are you awake?" A concerned feminine voice reached her. Na Ri squinted at the form of a woman bending over her bed. Her vision cleared fairly and she could make out the woman's appearance. Sleek brown hair hanging down her shoulders, soft pale skin riddled with makeup and a grey pencil skirt beneath a crisp white blouse.

"Who are you?" Na Ri whispered. She tried to move her legs, but looking down, she noticed the fracture on her right leg. That triggered flashbacks and she remembered a car hitting her -- or was it a truck speeding at her? Her senses felt slightly foggy, though she had realised she was lying in a hospital. Drips were connected to both her hands and she could hear the beeping noise of the machines around her.

"I am here to help you." The strange woman said sweetly, smiling pleasantly, but Na Ri felt something off about her.

"You have to listen to me carefully now." The woman's sweet smile slipped and she continued solemnly in undertones, "When the doctor comes to check you, you have to pretend that you are Cha Ji Ah, niece of Seo Nam Gil, not Hae Na Ri. Do you understand?"

Na Ri heart rate quickened in alarm. "Why?" She mumbled hoarsely.

"You want to live right?" The woman said in a honeyed voice. "Do what I say then. Cha Ji Ah's Samchon will be here soon. He will explain everything."

Who was Cha Ji Ah? Why did Na Ri had to pretend to be her? And what about her Samchon? Na Ri's mind raced as the woman flipped out a cell phone and rushed out of the room. With a shaking hand, she touched her bandaged face again. Her forehead, her cheeks, her nose and even her lips were covered with bandages. Her heart sank. What had happened to her face?

The hospital gown was thin but the sheets covering her were not, yet she felt really cold. She ran a hand on her head and imagined she resembled a mummy with bandages all over her head and face. She then felt around on her chest a small machine like object pressed against her skin right over her heart.

The vast room, she now observed was a vip one. The whiteness of the walls hurt her eyes. To her left side were a set of sofas, a table, and a huge window wih curtains drawn shut. To her right, was a comfortable looking bench lining with the wall, a chair and a water cooler. And high in front of her, a switched off dark screened LCD protruded out of the wall.

An ordinary person couldn't afford such a room at a hospital.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**_Here, I want to clarify that Seo Nam Gil and his secretary (who will show up in the next chapter) are somewhat based on The Beauty Inside's male lead and his secretary, but their personalities are very different. Seo Nam Gil is more cold and conceals his emotions a lot. And his secretary is meaner._**

**_~Fawns_**


	5. Chapter 5: An Unexpected Saviour

**_•I don't own Heirs._**

**_•English isn't my first language. Please correct my mistakes, so that I can learn._**

**A****n Unexpected Saviour **

A pair of doctors and nurses rushed in, the woman from before hot on her heels behind them. They checked her blood pressure, nurses assisted her in sitting (and her head hurt while removing it from the soft pillow) and fumbled around the machines, doctors discussed something among themselves, asked her a few question related to her physical condition and advised her to move her mouth and head less because she was still recovering.

Na Ri merely asked them what had happened to her face and head while the strange woman watched them like a hawk. The doctors told her her face was ruined in the accident and that it had been 'fixed' and her bandages would be taken off in around 4 weeks. Her head, doctors told her, also had a surgery performed on it which would take 3 more weeks to heal altogether.

"As for your leg, Miss Cha," Another doctor said, "You will be able to walk properly in 5 weeks."

They were mistaking her for Cha Ji Ah, Na Ri realised. She glanced over to the woman beside her bed and noted the disconcerting warning in her hard eyes.

Then all of sudden, Na Ri's mind clicked. If they thought of her as Cha Ji Ah, then what about her face? Whose face did they give her after _fixing _it? Her own or Cha Ji Ah's?

The clever looking, sleek haired woman must have noticed something change in Na Ri's wide round eyes for she jumped in immediately.

"Shouldn't Cha Ji Ah rest now, doctor?" She said to the doctor in her former sweet and polite manner which sounded fake to Na Ri now. "Her family will be here soon, I have informed them."

Na Ri erupted into questions as soon as the doctors left the room, "My face? Whose face do I have? Why am I being called Cha Ji Ah? Why do I have to pretend to be Cha Ji Ah? What's going on?"

Wincing, Na Ri placed a hand on her ribs as her ribs and face hurt from speaking too much, too quickly.

"Mr Seo will explain everything." She replied curtly.

The door opened just in the next moment and two men in expensive looking suits stepped in, their gaze directed at her.

The woman who had not introduced herself to Na Ri, stalked over to the men in suits, dipped her head once and stepped out.

Na Ri kept her eyes fixed on the two men as they neared her bed. The tall and lean one walked ahead while the other man -- who was not short at all, yet shorter than the one in front of him -- followed him closely, looking faintly irritated behind his black rimmed glasses.

The taller man --most likely Mr Seo -- arranged himself comfortably in the chair beside Na Ri, squaring one leg over a knee. He commanded authority and pride, and his features were so sharp it looked like someone had delicately sculpted him.

Na Ri swallowed and eyed Mr Seo warily, as the other man came to stand beside him.

Mr Seo, the man who had managed to intimidate Na Ri in just a few moments, fixed her with an unsettling stare.

"Is it true that you have killed Baek Tae Oh in a bathroom of his father's club, Royal Gate?"

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Na Ri broke out into a cold sweat. She shuddered, as she fisted her hands around the bed sheets.

She felt more light headed than she already was. Who was he and how he knew it? Most importantly what did he want from her?

"Who are you?" Na Ri croaked, trying to keep breathing normally.

"You didn't answer my question." The man stated coldly.

Na Ri hunched her shoulders and spoke weakly, "What will you do with my answer?"

A line appeared between his brows. "I will help you." He spoke after a brief pause.

Startled, Na Ri regarded him more clearly now.

"Why? Why would you?" She asked in a breathy voice.

"First, you have to explain your actions, then I will explain mine." He clasped his hands together, waiting for her to begin explaining.

Na Ri's hands tightened at the bed sheets. She gulped, feeling faintly sick to her stomach, and the cold was not helping at all. He was the one who had her face changed, she knew now. Nothing was making sense, though.

Na Ri looked away and her voice trembled as she spoke. "I..I didnt mean to. It just... happened."

She had no idea how should she explain everything. She looked at him helplessly, hoping for him to understand somehow. The guy beside him looked back and forth between Na Ri and Mr Seo.

"A murder doesn't just happen." Mr Seo said with the same coldness.

Na Ri's body twitched at his words. She sighed deeply and winced instantly, placing a hand on her chest, as her ribs hurt.

Mustering up enough strength, she told him everything; how and why she had entered the club, what had happened in there, and how she had ended up on the road.

Na Ri's sniffling sounded in the quiet room after she had finished her story.

Nothing seened to have changed about Mr Seo after hearing her story, except the faint grimness of his face, which wasn't there before.

She hoped he was pitying her. Na Ri would be happy to receive even pity from someone in this situation.

"You are completely stupid." The man beside Mr Seo spoke for the first time, with a disdainful tone, likely referring to her entering the club the way she did. It had been admittedly stupid. She had no idea what had consumed her to do that. She still hoped that those girls got away safely though.

"Without a doubt." Mr Seo agreed, before adding, "But discussing what could have been done is useless now. We need to focus on what should be done now."

Na Ri's heart flailed wildly.

"Are you really going to help me, Ahjussi?" She asked timidly.

"Ne." He said delicately, then proceeded to introduce himself, "My name is Seo Nam Gil, and currently I am the only person who could and who is willing to help you."

_But why? _She didnt need to ask for he continued on his own.

"My niece Cha Ji Ah died in this accident." He said, his face a perfect emotionless mask.

Na Ri's breath hitched in her throat and her grip on the bed sheet loosened at once.

"Total of two people died in this accident." He went on while Na Ri felt as though someone had punched her in the guts, knocking out her breath, "My 18 years old niece Cha Ji Ah who was returning from America and had been on her way to home while the accident occured. And her driver, a 62 years old man with no family."

Na Ri averted her gaze, unable to look at anyone now. The accident had been undeniably her mistake.

But she had only been running for her life. She couldn't even see or think well at that time.She didn't purposely jump in front of a car, or kill anyone.

_Kill anyone. _Na Ri shuddered again. She had killed someone.

If it were not covered with bandages completely, Na Ri would have covered her face with her hands.

Mr Seo continued obliviously, "Only a few people knew Cha Ji Ah in South Korea, therefore only a few are aware of her death. Those few consists of my parents, my cousin brother and his daughter, my secretary -- " He nodded towards the man standing beside him who immediately chipped in his name while pushing back his glasses, "Ahn Dan Te."

"-- a few other trusted people around me, and finally I." Mr Seo finished.

Na Ri was slowly catching on.

"You can live peacefully in Seoul with the face and identity of Cha Ji Ah." He continued, "I will provide you with all her documents that you may need. Also, I had all her social media accounts deactivated. As for Hae Na Ri," He looked her directly in the eyes, "She is dead from now on."

Na Ri's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open as much her bandages allowed it.

"That is the only way _you _can live." Mr Seo told her in a matter of fact tone, "Either you live as Cha Ji Ah, or don't live at all."

Na Ri swallowed and wrapped her arms around herself which was more out of cold. Everything was making sense, yet not making sense at the same time.

"Now, you are wondering why am I doing this?" He finally came to it.

That was the question that had been eating Na Ri up.

"The heart that is beating right now inside your chest," Mr Seo started, "Once belonged to my niece: Cha Ji Ah."

Na Ri's hand instinctively flew to the small machine attached to her chest.

"Her heart has been donated to you." He imparted, "Your going to prison or dying at the hands of the family of the boy you accidentally killed --" Na Ri flinched, "-- would have been a horrible waste of her heart."

Na Ri didn't say anything for a few moments.

"You are saying that I have to take Cha Ji Ah's-- your niece's identity and live like that from now on..?" Na Ri murmured tentatively. In these circumstances, she didn't mind throwing away her identity or even her face.

"Adapt her identity, not her life." Mr Seo cleared up. "Do whatever you want with your life, but you _cannot _under any circumstances _reveal_ your real identity to anyone. Not even to your father or any of your relatives from Gyeonsung."

Na Ri's eyes widened, "How do you know about that?"

"I have my ways and sources." He said somewhat conceitedly. "Anyway, try to live quietly so as to not attract any kind of unnecessary attention. No one will be able to recognise you as Cha Ji Ah the daughter of a law firm's CEO or a makeup company's owner, or as the granddaughter of Seo Hyun Ju or Seo Do Hee, owners of a conglomerate company, or as the niece of Seo Nam Gil, a conglomerate."

Na Ri was completely at a loss of words. How did she end up here?

Should she thank him now? A thank you sounded so small compared to what he was doing -- no matter the reason, he had saved her from hell.

Na Ri didn't know someone could go to such lengths for their niece. Correction: for their dead niece. Na Ri's own Samchon didn't even know whether Na Ri was alive or dead.

"Are you alright?" Mr Seo's voice startled her out of her thoughts. His coldness had melted slightly, nonetheless he still intimidated Na Ri.

Na Ri realised she had been quiet for long. She nodded slowly because her head throbbed. She must have looked exhausted for he stood up suddenly.

"You should rest, now." He smoothed a hand over his expensive looking vest. "You have the best facilities provided to you here and I will visit you again soon."

He looked about to say something more, but Na Ri interrupted.

"Thank you."

It was a quiet whisper of two words, but it silenced him.

Mr Seo regarded her for a moment with a blank face, and Na Ri feared she had angered him by speaking like that. But he merely nodded his head in acknowledgement, and walked out with his chin up and shoulders back, emitting the same confident and proud aura he had carried into the room. His secretary, Ahn Dan Te followed him out silently.

Na Ri leaned back and closed her eyes, thinking everything over. Some time later a nurse brought her a bowl of soup which tasted terrible --or more like tasteless. She tried pushing away the soup bowl, but the nurse scolded her immediately.

"Can I get one more blanket?" Na Ri said, feeling as though she is being too demanding. "Its cold."

The nurse didn't complain and went out to fetch a blanket.

A while later Na Ri sat snuggled in a white blanket --except for her fractured leg -- with a full stomach.

Everything seemed like a dream. If it was a dream or a nightmare, then it was too vivid to not be true.

A different identity meant Na Ri wouldn't have to worry about her father finding her out constantly, either. Things had turned out well for her, in the end.

Yet her heart was heavy.

Na Ri placed a hand on the machine attached to her heart. Maybe she should have taken some other alley, but she knew she had been panicking. Entering that cursed club had been the first biggest mistake. The second had been her running on the road with her nerves tangled. Three people had died because of these mistakes. Even so she hadn't intended to harm any of them. She told herself that she wasn't to be blamed for any of their death, but she couldn't help the pangs of conscience no matter how much she tried to defend herself to herself.

The night passed easily because her fatigue had enveloped her into sleep quickly.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

**_Do you think Na Ri is at fault?_**

**_~Fawns_**


	6. Chapter 6: Aren't We All Just As

**_•I don't own the Heirs._**

**_•English isn't my first language. Please correct my mistakes, so that I can learn._**

**_•Eomma means mom. informal._**

•**_Animida means not._**

**_•Aniyo, means no._**.

**_•I am sorry, if I am using some word incorrectly. I just want to give the fic the feeeeel of a kdrama._**

**Aren't We All Just As Desperate To Live Too?**

When a doctor and nurse came to check her in morning, Na Ri asked the nurse if it were snowing outside because she didn't want to ask if the heaters were working. Thats when the doctor told her.

"The central nervous system of your brain has been damaged in such an area that deals with taste perception." The middle aged doctor informed her. "And because the area of the brain that deals with tasting abilities is directly over the part which deals with body temprature, the injury to your head had a slight affect on it too. This injury has caused a loss of sense of taste and a sensitivity to cold in your brain. You will also experience a loss of appetite at times."

Now it made sense why the soup had been so tastless.

"Does it have a cure?" Na Ri asked.

The doctor nodded, "The taste disability does, the sensitivity to cold doesn't. A surgery might help. However, your head needs to recover from the previous surgery you had 2 weeks ago, then any new one can be procedured."

The fact that she had been here for two weeks did surprise her, but her attention was more focused on the word surgery.

"Is there no medicine that can cure it without surgery?" Na Ri asked uneasily.

The doctor shook his head, "No, there isn't. Sugery is the only cure, but its a harmless surgery."

Nonetheless, Na Ri didn't wanted to go under the knife again. What if she wouldn't make it alive after that? She would bear with a tastless life. It couldn't be that bad.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

It was very bad.

She had quickly realised in her next few days. She was only being given corn soup, and gulping them down seemed the hardest task to her, next to sitting or laying in bed all day. Her mouth opened with difficulty, and the soup left a weird metallic taste in her mouth as soon as she swallowed a spoonful down.

The next 4 weeks had been the most depressing and tormenting time of Na Ri's life. Such that Na Ri knew she would remember and loath forever. She cried herself to sleep, removing tears with the tips of her fingers or with the blanket before they fell on her bandages. Sometimes a tear or two would slip down her eyes and she would cry more in frustration. Her plastered leg itched and irritated her whenever she tried to sleep. She couldn't even toss or turn. Her nightmares were plagued by sometimes a car hitting her, sometimes a truck hurtling at her, and sometimes she would see the dead open eyes of _him _lying on the bathroom floor with a girl and another man's body.

Laying in bed all day made her incredibly restless. She was an active person. She wanted to jump off the bed, stretch and jog outside, but her body obviously didn't allow her. She had wondered did her mother felt this way too? And had felt even more depressed. She missed her Eomma terribly.

Though tv comforted her a little, but not much. A feeling of guilt had settled itself in her core that kept ringing her up every now and then. And she kept telling herself that she was only trying to live. Even now.

Mr Seo had not visited her again, contrary to what he had said. But the sleek haired woman --whose name she learned was Kim Eun Rin-- had been in and out of her room often, though she rarely engaged in conversation with Na Ri. Even if Na Ri tried talking to her, her answers would be curt.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

The restlessness, the loneliness, combined with the feelings of self accusation coiled themselves around Na Ri, suffocating her inch by inch.

Her bandages were opened in the presence of Kim Eun Rin. The bandages on her head had been removed a week ago. The doctor and Kim Eun Rin leaned closer, studying her face. They both possessed a picture of Cha Ji Ah which Na Ri had not seen.

When they were satisfied, they leaned back and Na Ri was handed a mirror. With a thumping heart, Na Ri glanced into it, but looked away quickly after catching a glimpse of someone else's face. The doctor encouraged her to look in the mirror.

Na Ri slowly turned back to the mirror and the first thing she noticed was that the girl was very pretty. A small sharp nose, full lips, a symmetrical jaw, round forhead and sharp cheek bones. The only familiar feature was her round doe eyes. They blinked back at her comfortingly, and looked the same as the last time she had seen them in a mirror. Red rimmed, but with a promotion of dark circles.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Things got better when her plaster was finally removed. Na Ri was allowed short walks in the hospital garden. Wrapped in a shawl, she limped through the garden with the help of a cane. The cold, she realised, was worse outside. A shawl wasn't enough to make it go away completely, but the refreshing breeze and sunlight were worth enduring it.

While sitting on a bench in the garden, Na Ri would often wonder why Mr Seo had not visited her again. Then remember that he was a rich businessman; a conglomerate, he had said. He didn't have that much of time to keep visiting her. It was not like she was his real niece.

Na Ri's leg had healed a lot and she was returning from a walk in the garden without a cane. When she entered the room, a short haired woman was sitting in the sofa with her back turned to Na Ri.

"Annyeong haseyo..?" Na Ri greeted reluctantly.

The woman stood up, turned around and went rigid at once.

The 60 something woman stared at Na Ri with shaking eyes. Na Ri was alarmed when her eyes welled up with tears.

"Who are you?" Na Ri asked cautiously.

The woman swallowed visibly, looking away and sniffing once, removing the tears from her eyes with the tips of her finger. She cleared her throat and her eyes hardened.

Her voice was stern when she spoke, "I am Cha Ji Ah's Halmeonim."

Na Ri opened her mouth in a, "Ohh."

Na Ri remembered she was the owner of some conglomerate company. She was dressed as such too. A pencil skirt with a fashionable overcoat and a designer bag hanging on her arms.

"Please, sit Halmeonim." Na Ri said awkwardly, but politely.

Na Ri was taken aback when Halmeonim's eyes flashed with an unexpected anger.

"How dare you call me Halmeonim with what you have done?" She seethed.

Na Ri felt as though she had been slapt in the face.

"I did not come to sit. I came to ask you something."

Na Ri directed her gaze downward on the pale white floor, her throat tightening.

"Did you jump in front of Cha Ji Ah's car?" She voiced her question, "Did you intend to commit suicide?"

Na Ri's eyes snapped up immediately. "Animida!"

"Then how did you end up in front of Ji Ah's car?!" Hameonim's voice raised and tears swam in her eyes again.

Na Ri cringed.

"I.. I was injured. I couldn't see well." She stammered quietly with tears burning behind her eyes.

"What? Injured?" Halmeonim raised her eyebrows in scorn and disbelief. "Why would you be on the road then? Why would you try to cross a road recklessly when you couldn't see well?!"

Na Ri's vision clouded with tears and she bit her quivering bottom lip.

"You jumped in front of her car to kill yourself car because you knew you were doomed already with what you had done." Halmeonim went on.

Na Ri's hand began shaking. She shook her head vigorously, tears slipping down swiftly. Did she not know what Na Ri had gone through too? She had not ended up on road because she wanted to. Na Ri sniffled and clenched her eyes shut, feeling resentful, but not saying anything.

"You should be ashamed of yourself." Halmeonim spat out, "If you wanted to die you should have used some other way. You killed someone who wanted to live. We were to meet out granddaughter. We were going to see our granddaughter that day. She was supposed to live with us... She.." Breaking off, she placed a hand on her mouth.

"I am sorry. I really am." Na Ri snivelled, apologizing pathetically while looking down. She really didnt know what else to say now to console the woman in front of her.

Halmeonim chuckled bitterly, curling her lip, "If you are sorry, then don't ever show your face to me again. Don't ever appear in front of me or my family. Don't ever bump into us somewhere."

Na Ri raised her head at that and another tear rolled down her cheek. She had always hated looking anyone in their eyes with tears in her own.

Something about her wet eyes must have panged her for Halmeonim grimaced upon making eye contact with Na Ri and averted her gaze away from her face.

"I wanted to slap you when I came here. But I can't even look you in the face and curse you." She said quietly, her glossy eyes fixed on the watercooler to her right.

The door behind Na Ri opened suddenly and someone stepped in. She didn't turn around to see.

"Eomeoni." Mr Seo's concerned came from behind Na Ri.

After wiping her cheeks, Halmeonim threw an unmistakably cold glare in Mr Seo's direction and strode out of the room, her long earrings dancing with each her step.

Na Ri tried holding it in. She moved to the hospital bed and and slumped down on it, tiredly. However all her resolve broke down when Mr Seo stepped forward and asked her "Are you alright?"

A choking noise emitted from Na Ri's throat and in the next moment, the hospital room was echoing with her loud sobs. Her body shook, as she hid her face in her hands. She had defended herself, reasoned with herself, used all explanations into not feeling guilty in the agonisingly tormenting weeks she had spend at the hospital. Only Na Ri knew the state of her mind both at the time of the accident and in the time she had spent laying in bed in the last 5 weeks. Then why was she suddenly feeling guilty? Why was she wondering whether living was really worth it at this point? Maybe she had been too desperate to live. But then who was not?

Although this was not how Na Ri had wanted to live when she had come to Seoul. She had come to Seoul with many dreams to fulfill, many goals to achieve. They didnt excite her as much now as they had done then. The hope that twirled inside her then, had now been replaced by a heartache. This heartache was going to kill her, she thought despairingly. And if it didn't, then she might.

Nam Gil had some idea as to what conversation took place here. He had been in a meeting when he was informed about his mother's sudden visit to Hae Na Ri. They say time heals all wounds, but Seo family's wounds were still as fresh as the day Ji Ah had died. Abeoji and Eomeoni still blamed Hae Na Ri for supposedly killing Ji Ah. But Nam Gil knew it was nothing but their brimming guilt and self loathing which was causing them to act this way. They had also stopped giving Nam Gil a cold shoulder, but their feelings toward Hae Na Ri had not improved in the least.

Nam Gil frowened at Na Ri. The girl was crying her eyes out and Nam Gil was achingly reminded of Cha Ji Ah. How she had cried her eyes out on his shoulder in America after Soon Joong unnie and her husband had passed away. He didn't intend to lend his shoulder to Na Ri ofcourse, but he wanted to do something and not just stand there idly.

After a few more moments of consideration, Nam Gil moved forward and settled himself beside a hiccuping Na Ri, hunched over her hands.

"None of it is your fault." He said gently, yet firmly.

She tensed beside him. Sniffling, Na Ri removed her hands from her face and narrowed her eyes at him as if he were lying to her --which he was doing; the girl had been foolish in many places, the rest were just unfortunate coincidences, though he was not going to tell her that.

"My Eomeoni and Abeoji had disowned their daughter 18 years ago when she fell in love with a middle class man." Nam Gil started. He thought, if Na Ri knew this, perhaps she wouldn't feel as bad. "She had lived in America, away from their eyes after that, till she died. Her daughter Cha Ji Ah, looked strikingly similar to her mother."

Na Ri straightened her back a little, listening to Nam Gil more eagerly.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

**_Would you feel guilty if you were in Na Ri's place?_**

**_~Fawns_**


	7. Chapter 7: We Cried Together

**_•I don't own Heirs._**

**_•English isn't my first language. Please correct my mistakes, so that I can learn._**

**_•Ne means yes, formal, informal._****_•Eo means yes, informal._****_•Ye means yes, formal._****_•Again, I am really sorry if I am using the words incorrectly. _**

**We Cried Together**

"My Unnie's sudden death news had quite an affect on them and then Ji Ah too left unexpectedly and in such a way. They are just bitter and remorseful. They feel more guilty than you do right now, while neither of you two are at fault. It will take some more time for them to recover from this impact and see things for the way they are. Don't take any word she said seriously."

Na Ri looked down at her hands in her lap, her sobs slightly under control now.

"But it doesn't change the fact that I am the reason three people are no more in this world." She said hoarsely, more tears slipping down her pale cheeks and her chest heaving with the effort of restraining sobs in.

Nam Gil resisted grunting in annoyance. Had she not heard a single word he had said?

"What has happened, has already happened. There is no way to go back and change it. Focus on future now, so that you don't have any more regrets." He said sternly. He had just wasted his time in trying to comfort her.

"Ahjussii," Na Ri said feebly, "Why dont you hate me too? Why don't you tell me to die too?"

"She told you to die?" Nam Gil asked with a faint frown.

"She didn't." Na Ri replied. "But she must have wanted me to."

"I don't think she does."

Na Ri grew silent momentarily.

"What about you then?" She gazed at him questionably with her wide round eyes filled with tears.

And for a moment, Nam Gil was shaken. Because he was reminded of when Ji Ah had asked him the same question in the same manner once.

He finally really looked at her face properly for the first time, after her surgery. The surgeon had been right when he had said that her eyes were not harmed in the least during the accident. Hae Na Ri and Cha Ji Ah had almost exactly the same eyes. Big doe eyes that portrayed a perfect picture of innocence. The difference was that Na Ri's eyes had shadows underneath and they were bloodshot red. But the main difference, he realised, was that her eyes were dull and sad. They didn't have the same mischief sparkle that shone in Ji Ah's eyes when she had sat in his chair at his office. The rest of her features were just the same as Ji Ah. If she were to dress as Ji Ah and cut her hip length hair to below shoulder, she would look just like Cha Ji Ah.

Nam Gil stood up, straightening his tie and vest, "Ofcourse I wouldn't want you to die. I have gone through so much trouble for you."

Na Ri blinked at him blankly.

"And that is why you should live passionately too." He said in a deliberately angry tone. "Do it for me, do it for Cha Ji Ah and Mr Kim, our old driver who died with her."

Na Ri swallowed visibly.

"I am going to get your discharge papers ready." He told her, before leaving.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

The only good thing happening in a long time was Na Ri being released from the torture chamber they often referred to as hospital. Mr Seo had told her that he had rented a small apartment for her in a nice area, such that she could pay rent easily. She couldn't go back to her old apartment, though Mr Seo had her some of her stuff discreetly taken from her former apartment for which Na Ri was grateful. Na Ri was grateful for everyting, actually.

Mr Seo sent a car for her to take her to her new home. The car had barely started moving on the road when her body began trembling, breathing became hard and a sudden unexpected dread gripped her tightly. She felt as though something bad were going to happen; as if something were going to collide into them at any moment; as though the car would turn over with any little force.

She tried to bear with it, but when the car turned too suffocating, she panted at the driver to stop the car.

As soon as the car stopped, she threw open the door and stumbled out dizzily, taking in greedy gulps of air. The driver was by her side in a second, but her trembling didn't stop. She was made to sit at a bench and she stopped the driver from calling her _Samchon. _

When her trembling subsided significantly, she told the driver to go ahead with her luggage and provide her the address, she would walk there. Walking was good for her knee anyway, the doctor had told her.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Nam Gil knew who he was when Kim Tan came to meet him at his office. Ji Ah had mentioned Kim Tan to him a few times. They had met in America not long ago and had, as Ji Ah said, fallen madly for each other.

But the boy had been engaged. Business or not, a _commitment _was a _commitment._

And that is why Nam Gil had advised her to stay away from Kim Tan, and he was giving a similar warning to Kim Tan now, as they sat in his office, facing each other. Nam Gil knew Kim Tan wouldn't give up on Ji Ah easily if he told him a amnesia story. Circumstances required him to reveal the truth to Kim Tan. Nam Gil wasn't sure about Kim Tan, but Ji Ah did love him.

There was no way he could use it against Nam Gil, as he had identities swapped very neatly. He even had Na Ri's thumb prints replace Ji Ah's wherever necessary. He had many sources. A person claiming Seo Nam Gil had assisted in switching his dead niece's identity with someone else's, would most likely be called crazy.

Looking at Kim Tan, now Nam Gil believed that he did love Ji Ah truly. His otherwise tanned face had drained of any color and he looked to be in a shock for some moments.

Then he went livid.

"I know you don't approve of me. But how can you lie about something like this!" He yelled, tears glistening in his eyes.

He sprang to his feet, licking his lips and blinking rapidly. His voice was laced with desperation, as he rubbed the back of his neck, "You are lying, right? Ji Ah is with her Halmeoni and Halabeoji. You have taken away her phone. You must be preventing her from contacting me. She.. she is alive...she can't..."

Nam Gil sat still, one ankle squared over a knee, brows bumped together and his mouth set in a grim line. There were only three times he had felt his resolve waver in front of someone else after Ji Ah's death. One, in front of his parents at Ji Ah's funeral when he had seen them mourning and cursing themselves. Two, in front of Hae Na Ri, a few days ago when she had looked at him the same way as Ji Ah. Three, now, when Kim Tan broke down in front of him.

Nam Gil's vast experience and knowledge of his 34 years of life concluded that the boy in front of him had been truly in love with Cha Ji Ah.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Na Ri -- now known as Cha Ji Ah had been advised that she needed proper rest, but she had started looking for a part time job immediately. She herself didn't have the strength to work double jobs, so she opted for only one, at a restaurant.

Her evening job turned out to be good distraction, though she needed someone emotionally. Colleagues at work were not exactly mean, but they were not particularly friendly either. She had tried initiating conversations like with Kim Eun Rin, but they just didn't seem interested in friendship like Eun Bi. That made her miss Eun Bi terribly.

Being alone caused her mind to keep wandering. At times the small quiet apartment would turn just as suffocating as the car and she would rush out in the streets. Even that act was not helping her much now. Her weight she feared would drop down rapidly if she kept eating the way she was.

Mr Seo had called once -- on the cell phone he had bought her -- to remind Ji Ah to take her medicines regularly and visit her doctor for weekly check ups. He had sent her a brand new scooty to travel on too, but Ji Ah was reluctant to use it. She was becoming more and more indebted to Mr Seo. Ji Ah felt herself very small whenever she thanked him lamely.

While working, Ji Ah had realised that the way you look affects a lot the way you are treated.

People were being extra nice to her; men in particular. They were flirtatious before, but they were even more now. They barely had any male colleagues, but the male customers were being too friendly. Ji Ah had been quick to notice that the friendly behavior was only towards girls, especially her. She tried to hide her discomfort everytime, yet she was growing irritated.

And then one day she encountered a total creep.

He ordered two vanilla shakes and sipped them painfully slowly while staring at Ji Ah. Her collegues were giggling and teasing her because the creep was a really good looking one, though there were fading bruises and bealing cuts on his face as though he had been in a fight some time ago.

Ji Ah tried to be patient, but when he ordered another vanilla shake and insisted Cha Ji Ah take his order, Ji Ah had had enough.

She stalked over to his table.

"What do you want, sir?" She said frostily.

"A vanilla shake." He replied after a moment, leaning back in his chair, staring intently at her, with his legs crossed. He was the same age as her. Ji Ah fleetingly thought he looked sad.

"I am sorry, we have run out of vanilla shakes." Ji Ah said with the same frostiness.

"Strawberry shake?"

"Out of stock."

"Chocolate shake?"

"Out of stock."

"Americano?"

"Out of stock."

A slightly amused smile settled on his lips. "Then what is in stock?"

"Nothing." Ji Ah replied, indirectly telling him to leave.

He gave a small amused chuckle before his smile faded, "I want to talk you."

Ji Ah scowled. What a weird creep he was, "I don't do. Please leave before I have police called."

He looked about to argue, but then with a thought, sighed and left.

When Ji Ah left the restaurant after her shift ended, she was frightened to see him leaning against a wall in front of the restaurant.

He stood up straighter upon seeing her. Ji Ah tried to walk away with long steps, but he caught up with her, standing in front of her and blocking her way.

"Ya!" Ji Ah cried angrily. "If you didn't leave right away, I will call police!"

"Hae Na Ri." He said unexpectedly, and Ji Ah almost stumbled back, "I am Kim Tan."

Ji Ah swallowed and fluttered her lashes at him. She knew about him. Mr Seo had told her.

They sat silently in front of each other, at a cafe. Ji Ah nervously picked at her thumbnail's cuticles with her fingernail under the table while Kim Tan stared at her intently, making her uncomfortable.

Ji Ah glanced around the small cafe, uneasily. "You said you wanted to talk." Ji Ah mentioned. Maybe he was here to rant too, like Halmeonim.

Kim Tan sighed, averting his face away from her, while licking his lips.

"I don't really have anything to say." He admitted. "I just wanted to look at you."

Ji Ah understood perfectly well what he meant by that.

She considered asking him did he not hate her?

"I have to go somewhere." Ji Ah lied poorly, trying to act normal. She just wanted to escape the situation.

Kim Tan gave her a knowing look, his face reflecting an unreserved sadness. Ji Ah instantly felt bad.

"Ne. I understand." He said, his voice sounding tight. "But can I hug you once?"

"What?" Ji Ah's eyebrows shoot up at the odd request.

"I just want to feel your heartbeat." Kim Tan confessed, "I will not trouble you after that."

Ji Ah felt trapped. Mr Seo had warned her about Kim Tan and told her to maintain her distance from him. She stared at him dubiously, as he gave her hopeful puppy eyes.

"Umm.." Ji Ah hesitated and his face fell, knowing her answer instinctively.

"It is okay!" Ji Ah said quickly. She already had enough to feel guilty about. This was a man _'Cha Ji Ah'_ had loved, and Ji Ah owed Cha Ji Ah her life. A hug should be a little thing compared to that, "Once is okay.'' Ji Ah mumbled, looking down.

"Thank you." He breathed.

They had been walking for some time and Ji Ah realised Kim Tan was actually walking her home. She stopped. She didn't want him to see where she lived.

"Umm.. I can go on from here on my own." She said awkwardly, anticipating _the hug. _

A light breeze brushed the brown tuft of hair on Kim Tan's forehead, as he stopped and frowned at her. "Then can I hug you?"

Faintly shivering, Ji Ah tugged her coat tightly around herself and nodded.

She imagined it would be awkward, but the awkwardness was only on her part.

Ji Ah inhaled a sharp breath as Kim Tan clasped her into his arms at once. She inhaled the light scent of his cologne, and her cheeks burned, as she felt her cold body warm against him. She placed her hands on his shoulder tentatively. Her chest pressed against him, and Ji Ah was certain that he could feel her heartbeat clearly, for her heart was thumping wildly in her chest.

Kim Tan's arms tightened around her torso and Ji Ah wondered if he were trying to squeeze her to death as a revenge for killing his love. Just when she was about to tell him how it hurt, she heard whimpering

She stiffened as Kim Tan's body raked with heartwrenching sobs. His chest shook against hers. Ji Ah didn't remember if she ever saw or heard a guy cry like this. So shamelessly and so painfully. She felt as though someone were tearing her heart apart piece by piece. If this was Kim Tan's condition then what about Cha Ji Ah's Halmeoni and Halabeoji?

Ji Ah didn't move, she didn't stop him. Instead, she cried with him in his arms.

**~~~~_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

**_Na Ri --now Ji Ah, met Kim Tan. I really love this scene where they cried together. :(_**

**_*feeling bad for kim tan and Na Ri*_**

**_She will be meeting Young Do in the next chapter._**

**_~Fawns_**


	8. Chapter 8: The First Time I Saw You

**_•I don't own Heirs._**

**_•English isn't my first language. Please correct my mistakes, so that I can learn._**

**_•Yeoboseyo means Hello._**

**_•sshi means a professional relation._**

**_•TRIGGER WARNING: A DEPRESSED JI AH AHEAD!_**

**The First Time I Saw You**

Ji Ah didn't sleep a wink at night, and didn't feel like leaving her bed in morning. She had cried all the tears that were threatening to make their appearance in the last 2 weeks, on Kim Tan's shoulder last night. None of them had tried to console each other, and wept on.

However, the tears she had shed with Kim Tan yesterday had only managed to make her heart even more heavy. The guilty conscience had striked her too brutally this time, and she laid in bed whole day like a wounded animal. Such that who wasn't even passionate about living anymore.

Her stomach grumbled, but she ignored it. She hated eating too. Her throat was aching and a headache had formed. Today was her weekly check up day, still she ignored everything and closed her eyes, tugging up her blanket more. Ji Ah desperately wished her Eomma was here to comb her fingers through Ji Ah's hair.

Her phone rang somewhere and she tried to ignore it. Only one person called her and that was Mr Seo. She mused if he would come and see her out of concern if she were to not pick his calls. Not this soon, she thought ruefully. If she were to die today here, her body might not be found for a few days. Mr Seo would grow infuriated like he had been at the hospital, and visit her apartment. He would ring the bell and tap his foot impatiently. When she wouldn't open even after 4 bells, he would demand the landlord lady for a spare key. When they would enter the apartment with a spare key, Ji Ah would appear to he sleeping, but as they would nudge her shoulder, she would roll over and they would finally realise that she was dead.

Ji Ah groaned in irritation and threw away her blanket grumpily when her cell phone rang for the fourth time. She sat up and reached over for her phone in dark at the kitchen counter. Her bed's headboard rested against the kitchen counter. It was a one room apartment with a bedroom, a kitchen and a living room in just one huge room.

Ji Ah picked up the call, "Yeoboseyo?"

"Where are you? Why are you not at the hospital?" Mr Seo was a very straightforward person, Ji Ah thought with subtle sarcasm.

"I don't feel well." She said quietly.

"More of a reason for you to be at the hospital." He replied drily.

Ji Ah frowned. "Can I go tomorrow?" She asked meekly.

"You would have to." He said, "I will have Dan Te-sshi get another appointment for tomorrow."

Ji Ah felt embarrassed.

"I am sorry, Ahjussi." She apologised sheepishly.

"Araso." He didn't pay much attention to her apology, as his attention seemed to be elsewhere "What is wrong with you? You said you don't feel well."

"Its more mental than physical. I am all good physically." She assured him, as she began picking at her cuticles with her fingernail.

There was a brief silence on the other side before he spoke thoughtfully, "You need to see a psychiatrist too." Ji Ah frowned. "What you have been through isn't normal and should be dealt as such too."

"What am I supposed to tell the psychiatrist? I can't talk about more than half of my traumas to him." Ji Ah said meaningfully.

"That is right." Mr Seo agreed. "But you can get therapy for your Amaxophobia. That is necessary."

"I don't want to get therapy for my phobia. I mean for the time being, please." Ji Ah said feebly, rubbing her throbbing forehead.

"Araso." He said calmly. "But one thing intrigues me." Ji Ah imagined him leaning back in his chair and squaring one leg over a knee, "You were not in any sort of vehicle at the time of the accident, then why are you afraid only when you are in a vehicle?"

Ji Ah's stomach grumbled again and she squinted at the clock sitting on her study table. The faint light shining from the window showed 3:37 pm. It was going to be her work time soon, but she had no intention of going today. She might collapse while carrying a tray.

"I don't know, Ahjussi." She said tiredly and picked on the skin under her thumbnail. "I just feel like something is going to collide with the car any second. I even have nightmares of a truck crashing into a car I am trapped in. The car turns over and I wake up. Even the pain in it is so vivid."

There was a long silence from the other side, but Ji Ah didn't take much notice, as she laid down in the bed again, and pulled the blanket over herself.

"Did you see Cha Ji Ah's car accident before you passed out that day?" Maybe it was his monotone or his question, but something about him grabbed Ji Ah's attention.

"Aniyo." Ji Ah said worriedly, "Why?"

There was another moment of tense silence from his side and Ji Ah grew more worried.

The he spoke in an odd tone. "A runaway truck had crashed into her car when her driver had turned it to the other road. The car had turned over first, then the truck had dragged it forward till the roof of the car came off. By the the time the truck stopped, the car was in ruins."

Ji Ah shuddered awfully. This was how _Cha Ji Ah _and her driver died? If the car was in such a condition then what would have been _her_ and _her _driver's conditon? Ji Ah felt tears form in her eyes again.

"Are you there?" Mr Seo asked.

"Ye." She said, trying to hide the thickness of her voice. "This is a strange coincidence."

"Indeed." He said warily, then paused for a moment before continuing. "You often have these nightmares?"

"Ye, almost every night." She told him.

"Then at least get therapy for them." Mr Seo suggested.

Ji Ah frowned thoughtfully. This didn't seem as hard as overcoming her Amaxophobia.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Ji Ah threw food inside her, took her medicines and slept really early. She woke up briefly for eating again, then went back to bed after checking her phone once.

Ji Ah woke up gasping and sweating.

She had another nightmare. This time a car had charged towards her, instead of a truck, but the car was being driven by Kim Tan. A new addition to her nightmare.

Ji Ah shuffled into a sweater and picked up her coat and woollen gloves while running out of her apartment. She couldn't sleep inside.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Standing inside the convenience store, Choi Young Do placed his ramen bowl on the counter in front of him and uncovered the lid. Hot steam brushed his hands.

He was moving the noodles with his chopsticks when he caught sight of a pretty girl -- with the longest hair he had ever seen on a girl -- waddling outside, towards the store. She was sleepily pulling on gloves.

He placed the chopsticks down and crossed his arms over his chest, his eyebrows bumping together, as he eyed her with interest. The weather was not that cold today, yet she was wearing a coat over a sweater. She collapsed on the table outside the store, but got back to her feet immediately and started to the store with half closed eyes. His gaze followed her, as she bought an energy drink, moved to stand beside him without taking any notice of him watching her, and opened the bottle. His eyebrows rose and fell, as he watched her gulp down the entire bottle in one go and wipe her mouth with the back of hand.

She then trudged back outside to the table and slumped down on it, resting her head on her arm.

Young Do picked up his noodle bowl and came outside. He placed the bowl on the table quietly, and pulled a chair across from her. She seemed to have fallen asleep. He waved a hand in front of her face to check. She didn't respond. Young Do vaguely thought she appeared somewhat vulnerable, lying on the table like that.

He slurped his noodles and chewed them lazily while leaning back in his chair, and studying her. Her long hair were splayed on her arm and back. They were neither exactly curly nor exactly straight -- and currently they looked frizzy and half tangled, as though she had just left her bed. Her smooth dewy skin shone in the morning light and her pouchy lips were shaped into an undeniably adorable pout. He looked around at the almost empty street with furrowed brows. She was too pretty to be sleeping here like this.

Young Do was chewing noodles peacefully in the company of his fast asleep companion when two kids came out of nowhere, and began arguing loudly. He glanced at the sleeping beauty, and turned to the kids.

"Ya, kids. Can you quiet it down a little?" Young Do spoke in hushed tones, motioning with a hand to speak low, "There is a person sleeping here." He gestured towards the sleeping beauty.

Young Do instantly regretted speaking, because in the next moment the kids exchanged a look and then without warning, burst into loud tears. Young Do wiggled his fingers in his ears as the kids shouted "Eomma! Eomma!"

He tried to keep eating, but the kids were going to rupture his ear drums with their Eomma's name.

"Are you bragging that you have an Eomma?" He scoffed at them, "I too had an Eomma when I was your age." Young Do said with mock pride.

That only increased their volume and Young do wiggled his fingers in his ear again.

The sleeping beauty stirred, and raised herself from the table drowsily. Without opening her eyes fully, she rose to her feet, turned and trudged away while Young Do lowered his eyebrows at the kids wailing in full volume.

A black car came to a stop behind the still wailing kids and Myung So peeked out. "Ya, Young Do-ah! What's going on?" He shouted over the kids' wails.

"These kids picked a fight with me." Young Do pointed a finger at them with mock offense, "They are teasing me for not having an Eomma."

The kids exchanged another look and ran away shouting "Eomma!" at the top of their lungs.

Young Do got to his feet, his half eaten noodles forgotten, and stared sideways at the long haired beauty disappearing around a corner.

"What happened?" Myung So wriggled himself out of the car window petulantly, trying to follow Young Do's gaze. "What are you looking for?"

"My heart." Young do mumbled after a moment.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Ji Ah blinked rapidly at her shiny surrounding. Everything screamed wealth. Mr Seo's lavish office had a huge table which was decorated with two laptops, one tablet, pen holder, some files and some other objects. With some space in front of the huge table, a set of sofas were placed carefully with a table in the middle, resembling a small living room. That was where Ji Ah sat with her feet crossed over each other. Across from her, a bewitching massive watertank glowed with fishes of various colors and sizes swimming in it. There was a door behind Ji Ah that presumably lead to a washroom. The blue painted walls were adorned with paintings that made no sense to Ji Ah. However, what caught Ji Ah''s attention the most was an expensive looking piano standing in the far right corner of the spacious office, looking quite out of place.

When 15 minutes passed, and it didn't look like Mr Seo would be here anytime soon, Ji Ah got up hesitantly and moved to the alluring piano.

Its lid was propped open, and its keyboard was not covered, yet there was not a single particle of dust on its any part. Ji Ah deliberately moved her slender fingers over its black and white keys. Acting on impulse, she seated herself in front of the piano, and in the next moments Ji Ah's fingers were tapping the keys, playing a music that sounded sad to her ears.

Notes rose and fell, rhythms tugged at the strings in Ji Ah's heart. Maybe, it was her depression, or her recent encounter with Kim Tan, but tears didn't seem to have a stop.

Her fingers came to a stop, but her tears didn't. She crossed her arms over the keyboard and leaned her head on it, forgetting where was she altogether.

"Your fingers," Ji Ah jumped in her place, "Were too stiff."

Mr Seo stood nearby, looking over her with an unreadable expression.

Ji Ah sniffed and wiped her tears. "Ahjussi, I am--"

''Relax your fingers." He said softly.

Ji Ah blinked at him dumbly with tears still clung to her lashes.

"Move." He gestured for her to step aside and Ji Ah did so hazily. He seated himself in her place, gracefully.

'Stiff notes come out with stiff fingers." He told her, playing the same song. His fingers glided over the keys far more skillfully. "Touch the keys as though you are caressing them." The notes rose and fell with expert gaps in between and rhythms connected admirably.

The song ended soon and the office grew quiet. He raised himself to his feet and started towards the sofas in the middle of the office.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**_I loved writing this scene, where Young Do kind of protected Ji Ah. It looks like Young Do likes Ji Ah because she is pretty, but wait. I will give Young Do moments to really fall in love with her._**

**_~Fawns_**


	9. Chapter 9: I Am Trying To Breath

**_•I don't own the Heirs._**

**_•English isn't my first language, so there may be mistakes. Please correct me, so that I can learn. Thank you._**

**_•Aniyo means no, formal._**

**_•Eomeoni means mother, formal._**

**_•Samchon means Uncle._**

**I Am Trying To Breath**

"How long have you been learning?" He asked her as Ji Ah followed him, sniffing quietly.

"Erm, err.." Ji Ah hesitated. They took seats opposite each other and Mr Seo arched a brow at her questionably.

"That's the first time I touched a piano, actually." Ji Ah confessed. She had surprised herself too by playing, she had to admit.

Mr Seo furrowed his brows, in what seemed like a frown, "That was an excellent performance for someone playing piano for the first time." He said with a subtle hint of wariness.

"I just pressed the keys randomly." Ji Ah said, tapping her finger tips together. "Piano seems easy."

"Randomly?" Mr Seo repeated.

"Ye." Ji Ah affirmed. "It just came to me."

Mr Seo seemingly considered her for a moment and Na Ri felt nervous.

"Have you never played or heard this song before? Perhaps by someone else playing at your school in Gyeonsung?" Mr Seo asked keenly, leaning forward almost unnoticeably.

"Animida." Ji Ah shook her head lightly.

"That was a song by a famous music writer, Chopin." He informed her. "Prelude in E Minor."

Ji Ah's lips parted in a ohh. "Erm.. I must have heard it somewhere then."

"Even so, it is not easy to play it or play piano in general for someone touching it for the first time." Mr Seo said in an odd tone.

Ji Ah stared at him for a moment before chuckling nervously. "That is weird." Was he thinking she was lying? Ji Ah conceded that it was weird, but maybe it was her natural talent. She had thought she had none, that she was only good at studying her head off.

"Indeed." Mr Seo said thoughtfully. "It was also Cha Ji Ah's favourite song. She often played it in America when I was there with Eomeoni and Abeoji." There was something in his tone that made Ji Ah feel uncomfortable.

Her gaze unintentionally shifted to the piano in the corner.

"Cha Ji Ah played piano too?" Ji Ah asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Had been since childhood, like me." He told her. "She sang somtimes too while playing. My unnie also loved piano. We used to play it together long ago. She wanted to be a pianist back then." Mr Seo's eyes glazed over vaguely and a very faint smile tugged at his lips as he seemed to reminisce some achingly pleasant memory.

Ji Ah stayed silent to give him a moment.

"Do you want to learn piano?" Mr Seo asked suddenly.

Ji Ah lifted her eyebrows and smiled nervously. "Me?" She almost squeaked.

"Ne." He said. "I can teach you, here and you can practice while I am out."

She was astounded by the offer seeing, as he was a very busy man.

"Aniyo." Ji Ah shook her head with a nervous smile, her hair scattering over her face. "I don't really have a passion for music. I don't want to learn." She was lying, she wanted to play that piano again. "But thank you for offering to teach." She dipped her head meekly. "Besides, I have to work and go to a school soon. I haven't graduated yet." She added as a after thought.

"I know." He said and Ji Ah didn't need to ask how. "School is the reason I called you here for."

Mr Seo stood up and moved to the huge table. He picked up some things and placed them on the table in front of Ji Ah, taking a seat again. A letter sized puffed up envelope, a thin file sized envelope and magazine like book that read in capital letters **_'Jeguk High School'_**.

"I have submitted your admission form with all the necessary documents and fees'. You just need to go and buy yourself a uniform." He said.

Ji Ah's gaze jumped back and forth between the envelops lying on the table and Mr Seo.

She couldn't, she just couldn't. She had always guarded her pride, but that had been one of the things she had to sacrifice after _the accident._ Nevertheless, not anymore.

"Ahjussi..." She began reluctantly. "I will work for some time.. and I will make enough money to put myself into a school. I --"

"You may not be in a condition to study by then." Mr Seo interrupted her sharply. Ji Ah was taken aback. "You need a distraction and you need it now. I don't see anything better than a school for that."

Ji Ah's gaze dropped. He was right. She doubtlessly needed a strong distraction.

But she was embarassed to have him shed his money for her again. She knew she couldn't ever pay him back.

Ji Ah hesitated, turning red as her shoulders slumped and she fiddled with a button on her coat. "Ahjussi, I can never pay you back for all you have done for me." She thought, she sounded utterly pathetic.

"Who said you can't?" Ji Ah raised her gaze back to him in confusion to see him arching a brow at her. "Go to school, study, make friends, take part in extra activities, and live in the true sense of living; a happy and healthy life. You only have to do that, if you want to pay me back. I will regard it as your gratitude."

Ji Ah frowned as her throat tightened. Living wasn't easy. And living a happy and healthy life seemed a long lost and forgotten dream now. One which she herself wasn't willing to remember now.

"I understand, Ahjussi." Ji Ah dipped her head slightly and mumbled.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Ji Ah had just returned from work and was about to boil some rice to eat when someone rang the door bell.

Mr Seo's secretary Ahn Dan Te barged ahead, making Ji Ah gasp and jump aside as soon as she opened the door.

"What are you doing?!" Ji Ah cried after him. He dumped two brown bags on the kitchen counter and pushed back his glasses on the bridge of his nose with an audible sigh. Ignoring her altogether, he then rushed out back, and Ji Ah opened her mouth in a mixture of irritation and bewilderment. He was striding back in, in no time and dumped more bags on the counter.

"What is this?" Ji Ah moved closer and eyed the brown bags.

Ahn Dan Te crinkled his nose in irritation.

"Your _Samchon_ had told me to deliver some meat and seafood to you." He drawled with obvious sarcasm. Ji Ah was sure he didn't want to do this certain job.

"Why?" Ji Ah breathed in frustration. Did Mr Seo forget what she had said yesterday?

"Your _Samchon _wants you to eat well, that's all." He pushed back his glasses again, even though they were already in their place.

"Please take it back, I will talk to Samchon-- _Ahjussi _I mean!" Ji Ah almost bit her tongue, and glared in irritation at Ahn Dan Te, who seemed pleased with himself.

"Your_ Samchon _paid me to bring these here. You would need to pay me too if you want me to take them back." He was making fun of her.

Ji Ah scowled at him.

Ahn Dan Te moved to the door, and Ji Ah followed him. She called after him, as he climbed into his car, but he ignored her and sped away. Ji Ah scowled again.

She checked the bags one by one. There was steak, pork, shell fishes, crabs (Ji Ah's eyes had almost bulged out at their sight), and some other fishes she had never seen before. She stared dejectedly at the food scattered across the kitchen counter. Was Mr Seo making fun of her too? She couldn't taste any of this. Their mere aroma was going to be a torture.

Ji Ah ate rice and went to bed. The meat and sea food lay untouched in her refrigerator. The 150 million won Mr Seo had given her for school uniform, extra curricular activities and other school related expenses, were carefully tucked under her mattress. She had almost cried in front of Mr Seo. If he hadn't been there, Ji Ah didnt know how she would have survived -- if she had survived at all.

She would buy her uniform tomorrow. Ji Ah had insisted on going to some other school after finding out how expensive Jeguk High was, but Mr Seo had reprimanded her that the granddaughter of a conglomerate and a heiress to a massive wealth couldn't just attend an ordinary school or it would appear suspicious. (As for her job and apartment, Mr Seo had told her she could put on an act that she wanted to learn what a middle class or a poor person's life was like, to stay humble, that is if she were to be found out some day.)

However, the lavishness of the school wasn't the only reason Ji Ah didn't want to attend Jeguk High. Mr Seo had warned her that this was Kim Tan's Eomeoni's school.

Which meant that Kim Tan would be attending it this year too.

Ji Ah placed a hand on her sudden thundering heart.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

The lady measured her arms and Ji Ah stared at the uniform, scrutinizing it to see where were the diamonds which were supposed to be embedded in the 100 million won uniform.

After the lady was done measuring her clothes, she told Ji Ah her uniform would be delivered home. Ji Ah thanked her and started towards the exit. She fleetingly thought if Kim Tan already had his uniform made or not.

Ji Ah had a turtle neck sweater on, under her dark coat, and she almost constantly wore gloves now. Still she shivered as she walked out of the store.

Ji Ah had barely walked a step when a pretty girl in Jeguk High uniform blocked her way.

Ji Ah briefly noticed she had come on a bike with a guy before the girl spoke haughtily. "You are not running away, today."

Ji Ah blinked at her. "Do I have a reason to?" She was genuinely confused, but the girl must have thought Ji Ah was being arrogant.

Her upper lip curled disdainfully and she gave a chuckle in a conceited disbelief. "Are you crazy? Do you not have a reason to run away from me?!"

The girl apparently knew _Cha Ji Ah._ Ji Ah tried to hide the tension rising in herself.

"As I had expected, Kim Tan has come to Korea." She said.

As she mentioned Kim Tan, Ji Ah's eyes fell on her name tag.

Rachel Yoo.

Kim Tan's fiancee.

"Don't act so surpised." Rachel snapped. "I am sure you are already knew he is here."

Ji Ah wanted to get out of this situation quickly.

"I have to be somewhere, please move." Ji Ah tried to be polite and attempted to move, but Rachel stepped in front of her again.

"Running away now?" She chuckled contemptuously.

Ji Ah fixed her with a cool look. She could now easily see why Kim Tan didn't like Rachel.

"I have better things to do than bear your egotism." Ji Ah said flatly.

Rachel's eyes widned in a scornful disbelief.

"What are you?!" She raked Ji Ah with a scornful gaze. "Didn't I warn you in America? I called your number on your flight card when I found out Kim Tan was here, but it was switched off. I dont want to --"

"Flight card?" Ji Ah interrupted.

"Have you forgotten?" Rachel sneered. "I had taken your flight card that day."

Didn't flight card have all the important information including home address? Ji Ah thought with mild horror.

"Give it back." She said immediately.

Rachel chuckled in an irritatingly smug manner. "Take it?" She mocked.

Ji Ah pursed her lips. Just then Rachel's name tag shined in the light from the store.

Rachel gave a sharp gasp, as Ji Ah jerked her name tag out of her uniform shirt and swiftly slipped it into the inner pocket of her coat.

"Then I will keep your name. If you want it back, mail my flight card to the address on it, with your address. I will mail your name tag back." Ji Ah said, half enjoying Rachel's hysterical expressions.

"Are you crazy? Do you want to die?!" Rachel's voice rose irritatingly, while Ji Ah thrust her hands into her pockets and moved past her.

"Ya! Cha Ji Ah!" Rachel's voice followed her.

Ji Ah was about to step on the road when the tall guy Rachel had rode with blocked her way. Ji Ah faltered but quickly composed herself, narrowing her eyes at him. "Are you her bodyguard?"

His eyebrows rose and fell, and he shurgged his shoulder, before stepping aside. He pulled out his hand from his pocket and dramatically motioned for her to leave. Ji Ah walked past him with relief.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****_They will be meeting again in the next chapter. :D_**

**_~Fawns_**


	10. Chapter 10: Don't Make Me Jealous

**_•I don't own the Heirs._**

**_•English is'nt my first language, so there will be mistakes. Please correct me, so that I can learn. _**

**Don't Make Me Jealous **

Her relief was short lived, however, for she had barely gone far when she heard the rumble of a bike. Instead of moving past her, he parked it just in front of her, turning the key off, and fixing his eyes on her.

What did he want? Ji Ah did her best to conceal her discomfort.

He gave her a slight tight lipped smile. "Let's answer a quick question. What is it between you and Kim Tan?"

Ji Ah had not been expecting that.

"Nothing." She answered, puzzeled.

"What is it with you and Rachel then?" He fired another question.

"Nothing, at all." Ji Ah shook her head lightly.

"Then why did she take your flight card and why did you take her name tag?" He arched a brow.

"Why are you asking me all this?" Ji Ah wasn't going to explain it because she herself didn't know. "Ask Rachel, please."

The guy grinned boyishly. "In case, you are misunderstanding," His mirthful expression dropped suddenly in a disconcerting way. "Do you think I am asking nicely?" He muttered in a threatening tone.

Ji Ah's composure wavered dangerously, and she tried to recompose herself.

"That sounds like another question." She lifted her chin, attempting to fake confidence.

He raised his eyebrows as though impressed. "Answer at least one."

"Why do you want to know?" Ji Ah regretted uttering that question because she had a sudden alarming thought if she were supposed to know this guy too.

He smiled smugly and sat up straighter on his bike.

"I haven't seen anyone piss Rachel off that fast, except for me." He waved his hands in an exaggerated manner. "Besides we are on the same side." He grinned in a way that seemed both sly and flirtatious to Ji Ah. Ji Ah knew straight away that this guy meant danger.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Will you meet me again if I tell you?" He said huskily, with a steady gaze into her eyes.

"Ani." She said, repulsed.

"Why?" He raised eyebrows.

"Why would I?" Ji Ah widened her eyes.

"Why would you not?" He grinned mockingly at her.

Ji Ah scowled in annoyance.

"I have to go somewhere, please move." She said.

"Am I stopping you?" He mocked surprise. "You are standing here by your choice. Am I blocking the whole street?" He pointed towards the wide space in front of him smugly. "I was just exercising here." Grunting, he pretended to stretch on his bike, moving his arms forward one by one.

Ji Ah frowned at him in bemusement. _What a weirdo!_

She stepped around the bike, and moved past him. But he wasn't going to let her just go.

"Can I get you number?"

Ji Ah whirled around halfway, and stared at him incredulously. Why would she give this creep her number?

"I don't have a cell phone." She lied.

However, her phone decided to ring just in that very moment.

Ji Ah turned her head away, and clenched her eyes shut in frustration while he gave a deep and irritating laugh.

Letting her phone vibrate in her pocket, she attempted to walk away in embarrassment without sparing his annoying face another look, but he grasped her arm and tugged her back to him. Ji Ah gave a small gasp.

"What are you doing?!" She tried to sound angry, but her voice mildy trembled in fear. Her view was fairly obscured by a curtain of her dark hair hanging over her eye.

"Your number." He gave a slight tight lipped smile.

Ji Ah lifted her chin in defiance. "I don't want to give."

"I want it." He said as though that mattered more.

Ji Ah tried to jerk her arm out of his grasp, but he jerked her back. "Your phone?" He placed forth his palm in a demanding manner.

Ji Ah considered her options, glaring at his palm for a moment. Her eyes briefly darted around, and she bitterly thought why streets were always empty when she was in trouble.

Sighing exasperatly, Ji Ah flipped out her phone against her wishes, and thrust it into his palm. He smiled triumphantly, and dialed his number in it. His phone rang in his uniform blazer, and he ended the call before handing her phone back. Ji Ah snatched it from his hand, and pulled out her arm from his grip.

He accelerated his heavy bike, and the street filled with roaring sounds. "Don't ignore my calls." His smug smile was back, but she could feel the menace underneath. He zoomed away in the direction he had come from.

"Total weirdo!" Ji Ah spat aloud when he was out of sight. He was a student at Jeguk, Rachel was going to be there too and Kim Tan...

Ji Ah felt like crying in frustration. She had a feeling Jeguk was going to trouble her more than she already was.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Ji Ah's nerves were in a jumble as she brushed her hair after putting on the school uniform. She pinned them back from one side and straightened her blazer. The scars on her leg from the accident were carefully hidden under the dark tights, covered by dark socks, beneath her skirt. A turtle neck sweater underneath her shirts had become a constant piece of clothing for her now. She decided to ditch the gloves today, but kept them in her bag in case she felt more cold. She couldn't catch a cold now or she wouldn't be able to work or study.

Ji Ah was determined to avoid Kim Tan at any cost. That would keep Rachel off her back too. But the bike guy...

He had called four times in the last 3 days and Na Ri had declined each one. She had expected threatening texts from him, but he had sent none.

Ji Ah added him to the list people she needed to avoid.

She walked to the school, and felt immense relief that it wasn't particularly far from her apartment. Jeguk High turned out to be incredibly different than her school back in Gyeonsung. One look at its building and a person could tell that money was used generously on it. Ji Ah would have never imagined that she would go to such a prestigious school. That made her think the same thought she had once before, _how did I end up here?_

Students were climbing out of lush cars and their chauffeurs were helping them in wriggling their school bags on. Ji Ah felt as if she had entered another world when she moved through the school gate. Boys and girls were chatting in english, their accents too american. Girls had bows, beautiful clips adorning their silky hair while Ji Ah fidgeted with the plain black hair clip on her not so sleek hair. People were discussing stock exchange and how many millions or billions they lost in it, today. Ji Ah tucked her hands into her pockets, feeling herself growing smaller.

Suddenly some people gave dramatic gasps, and rushed forward towards a crowd gathered outside the doors leading inside school building. Ji Ah thought she heard "Kim Tan" from someone. Out of curiosity, Ji Ah hurried after them too. Everyone was quiet, so Ji Ah tapped a girl on the shoulder, and asked her quietly as to what was going on. Ji Ah wasn't especially a curious person, but when drama happened, she would suddenly turn into one.

The girl didn't look at her, as she was trying to stand on her tip toes to look over the tall guy in front of her, but whispered briskly. "Kim Tan and Choi Young Do."

Ji Ah blinked. Who was Choi Young Do and what about him and Kim Tan?

Then she heard Kim Tan's voice, though she couldn't make out his words clearly. There was some other guy speaking too. Ji Ah also tried to stand on her tip toes to have a peek, but in vain. Out of nowhere, someone bumped into her and she stumbled forward with a gasp. The people she stumbled into, tried to push her away more and someone from behind roughly knocked Ji Ah forward. She cried out as she landed on the hard floor with a thump.

Wincing, Ji Ah raised herself on the floor and brushed her hair out of her face. Why would they push her like that?! She thought angrily.

Ji Ah's head snapped up when a wolf whistle came from above her.

"A holiday gift fell out of the sky!" Ji Ah's heart jumped to her throat at the sight of the bike guy standing over her with his hands tucked arrogantly in his jeans pockets, and a devilish amusment on his face.

Ji Ah sat up straighter on the ground, and to her utter horror, she realised that she had landed between Kim Tan and the bike guy --Choi Young Do.

She looked back and forth between the amused looking Choi Young Do and the stony faced Kim Tan nervously, while the crowd whispered.

Kim Tan stepped forward, and pulled her to her feet gently by her arm. "Are you alright?" He asked solemnly, a faint concern in his voice.

She nodded with wide eyes and burning cheeks. She had embarassed herself on the very first day at school.

"Go in. Get your class schedules." Kim Tan nodded in the direction of the doors leading inside the school building.

Ji Ah dipped her head and threw a brief look at Choi Young Do -- which she regretted at once because he was giving her a scary look with his eyebrows bumped together. The amusment had vanished completely from his face.

"Go," Kim Tan grumbled at her.

Ji Ah made to move forward, but Young Do's arm shoot out. He grabbed her arm and spinned her around, pinning her to his side in a second. Ji Ah inhaled the sharp scent of his cologne, as she tried to push his hand off her forearm, but he kept his grip tight.

"What do you think you are doing?" Kim Tan said in an eerily calm voice, yet Ji Ah could see anger burning in his eyes.

"We have a new classfellow, so introductions are in order." Young Do smirked. Ji Ah felt her hands beginning to quiver. She looked at Kim Tan helplessly.

"She is Cha Ji Ah. A transfer student. Introduction ends here." Kim Tan said before grabbing her wrist and jerking her out of his grip.

But Young Do grabbed her other wrist.

Ji Ah's shoulders hunched slightly as she was stuck between them with each her wrist in Kim Tan and Young Do's hands. She cursed herself inwardly for coming near the crowd. She always ended up at places she didn't want to be.

"And how do you know her?" Young Do said, his expression back to being scary.

"Why do you care?" Kim Tan shoot back. Ji Ah tugged at her wrist in Young Do's hand, but he didn't let go. Everyone was watching. She felt her face flush even more.

"I want to be friends with this pretty girl here." Young Do lifted a brow, pointing a finger at Ji Ah. "But I can't be if she is the friend of my enemy."

"And what if she is?" Kim Tan said sharply.

"Then I would need to break this friendship." Young Do gave a sly smile.

Ji Ah looked back and forth between them in apprehension, feeling her throat constrict.

"You are better off without friends. You tend to stab them in the back." Kim Tan seemed to be trying to restrain his anger, as he took a step forward, with her wrist still in his hand.

Young Do also stepped ahead, grinning smugly "There are such friends who should be stabbed _everywhere._" He drawled.

Ji Ah yanked her wrist out of their grips. They were making a show out of her.

They both looked at her, as though they had forgotten she was there.

She fixed her gaze on the ground and there was a faint tremor in her voice as she spoke. "Please continue your quarrel without me."

Ji Ah turned on her heels and made her way towards the school doors, with a bent head while people parted to give her way.

She sullenly made her way to the teachers' office after asking around for it.

A teacher asked her to fill out a form. Ji Ah hesitated at the parents section momentarily, before writing real Cha Ji Ah's parents' names. Mr Seo had provided her with all the basic, non basic information about the real Cha Ji Ah. Ji Ah had memorised them thoroughly.

The teacher in front of her eyed her with a barely concealed interest when Ji Ah uncomfortably wrote Mr Seo's name and contact information in her guardian section.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**_One thing I forgot to mention: Choi Young Do's mother is dead in this fic. Kim Tan had been late to inform Young Do that his mother was leaving. After waiting for Young Do for a long time, his mother had left the restaurant and ended up dying in a road accident. Kim Tan and Young Do are enemies because of this._**

**_~Fawns_**


	11. Chapter 11: The Only Way To

**_•I don't own the Heirs._**

**_•English isn't my first language so there are going to be mistakes. Correct me so that I can learn. :)_**

**The Only Way To Hold Your Hand**

Ji Ah got her schedule and found her locker. She was placing her stuff in the locker when Rachel approached her.

"Have you really transferred here?" She asked in her disdainful manner that irritated Ji Ah.

"Eo." Ji Ah said, shutting her locker close.

"What does your parents do?" She fired quickly.

Ji Ah was startled for a moment by the quality of the question.

"What does yours do?" She countered after recovering, surprising even herself.

Surprise crossed Rachel's face.

A few more students gathered around her and a cute looking guy moved his hand in her direction. "Hey, transfer student. I am Myung So. The photographer of Jeguk High." He brushed his hair at the back of his neck in a playful girlish manner.

Ji Ah shook his hand, and introduced herself with a small smile. "I am Cha Ji Ah."

"We heard." A girl with a ponytail chipped in. "Kim Tan introduced you earlier."

Ji Ah felt she was being mocked, and her smile faded away.

"How does Kim Tan and Rachel know you anyway?" Another girl asked, leaning forward and glancing at Rachel -- who at once moved to her locker with a sour expression. Ji Ah imagined they were the gossip girls of Jeguk.

She felt grateful when the bell rang. They forgot their question and rushed to the classroom. Ji Ah followed them quietly.

She had always hated introducing herself in front of a group of people. She pushed her shoulders back and tried to sound confident when the teacher told her to introduce herself to the class. They all knew her already now.

"I am Cha Ji Ah, a transfer student and I hope to get along well." She kept it short and gave a slight bow at the end. Someone laughed and Ji Ah blinked in confusion. What did she do wrong?

"I have a question!" A guy said from a window seat, with a mischief look about him. "Are you single?"

A few snorts sounded across the classroom, and Ji Ah felt her face flush. Their teacher scolded the guy, and the class quieted down.

No one said anything after that, and the teacher told her to take a seat in front of Kim Tan. Ji Ah was about to move when another guy spoke.

"I have a question too." A guy with glasses said. "What was the reason for you transfer?" He asked in curiosity.

Ji Ah was at a loss of words. She had not prepared an asnwer for that question.

Should she mention America?

But mentioning America might raise more questions.

Maybe she should say that she wanted a change of environment?

But who would transfer to such an extraordinarily expensive school for mere change of environment?

Should she say she was expelled from the previous one?

That might not be the best--

"I want to introduce myself too." Kim Tan stood up, snapping Ji Ah out of her rapid ideas.

"Everyone already knows you Kim Tan." The teacher said.

"Still its been three years. Some people may have forgotten me." He tucked his hands in his jeans's pockets, and ambled to Ji Ah.

"Move. Its my turn." He pretended to be annoyed while Ji Ah knew he was helping her. She gave him a grateful look before moving to her seat.

Kim Tan had started speaking, but Ji Ah wasn't exactly listening. She felt someone's eyes on her and turned her head a bit to see Choi Young Do staring at her. Maybe it were his naturally sharp eyebrows, but he had a constant scary expression that unnerved Ji Ah. It was better when he smiled, but still menacing.

Ji Ah suddenly remembered she had declined his calls and turned away from him.

She headed to her locker after the class ended. Myung So was walking into the hallway while arguing with the ponytail girl about something.

"Cha Ji Ah!" He almost yelled her name when he caught her sight. He and the ponytail girl approached her quickly. Ji Ah eyed them with apprehension.

"You are new money, right?" Myung So said.

"New money?" Ji Ah frowned in bafflement.

"Eo. Only two types of people transfer here. Either people who recently got rich; new money students, or people who got scholarships; social care students." He explained.

"Which one are you?" The ponytail girl asked in a very judgmental tone.

Ji Ah brushed her hair out of her face, and stammered in nervousness. She was neither of them, and she couldn't tell them that.

"New money!"

Everyone's head snapped in the voice's direction.

Kim Tan came to stand beside Ji Ah, his hands tucked in his pockets in an arrogant manner "She is new money."

Myung So let out a cry of joy. "Told you, Kang Ye Seol!" He said to the ponytail girl.

Kang Ye Seol screwed up her face in disappointment.

"We had a bet." Myung So said excitedly. "I was saying Cha Ji Ah is new money, but Kang Ye Seol insisted that she was social care student." He turned to Kang Ye Seol, saying in a sing song voice. "I won the bet."

Chatting, they both moved away, leaving Ji Ah and Kim Tan alone.

"Why did you tell them I was new money?" Ji Ah said, without looking at him.

"Was there something else to tell?" Kim Tan said in a dead tone, averting his gaze away from her too.

They looked like strangers conversing in public. Awkward and severely distant.

"I will go tour the school." Ji Ah said, wanting to get out of the tense air. Kim Tan's eyes flickered to her once, but she scurried past him.

Ji Ah thrust her cold hands into her blazer pockets, as she stepped out of the building. Her eyes roamed the school grounds nonchalantly, while she strolled. Ji Ah wondered why Kim Tan and that Choi Young Do were fighting earlier. She frowned while recalling Young Do saying he wanted to be friends with her. She knew he was going to confront her soon about the calls--

Ji Ah gave a gasp, as someone thrust out their foot in front of her, almost tripping her. She stumbled forward, but that person caught her hand.

"Are you alright?" Choi Young Do asked in a false concerned voice. Ji Ah immediately pulled her hand out of his, brushing her hair out of her face.

"You tripped me!" She exclaimed.

"How can I catch you if I don't trip you?" He gave her a smug grin.

Ji Ah scoffed. "You are weird."

His grin only widened. "Just weird? Not scary?" He stepped vaguely forward, raising his eyebrows.

Ji Ah leaned back, but thrust her chin up, trying to sound brave. "Why should I be scared?"

His expressions turned scary. "Because I am going to trip you again and again."

Ji Ah couldn't hide her frown of fear. What was his problem?

"Why?" She asked, blinking far more than necessary.

"Why do you think?" He took another threatening step forward, and Ji Ah backed away. "You didn't answer my calls, you didn't answer _me _truthfully when I ask you a question."

"What question?" She licked her lips, ignoring the calls part.

"What is it between you and Kim Tan?" Young Do repeated the same thing he had asked that day.

Ji Ah opened her mouth, then closed it. She wanted to tell him to ask Kim Tan himself if he was so curious, but Young Do didn't look like he would appreciate that remark.

"I told you there is nothing." She said firmly.

Young Do leaned forward with a slight tight lipped smile. "Are you sure?" He said as though giving her a chance to redeem herself.

"Eo." Ji Ah said confidently.

He clapped his hands together, leaning back. "Araso! then answer another question."

"Stop playing question answer with her." Kim Tan's voice came from behind Young Do.

He swaggered into Ji Ah's view, and Ji Ah saw Young Do's excitement turning into irritation.

"Go, you were supposed to tour the school." Kim Tan said to her.

Ji Ah glanced at the scary look on Young Do's face -- he really did look scary when there were no traces of amusment on his face -- and took this chance to escape him. She bent her head, and turned her back to them. Ji Ah could hear their faint voices, as she began in the opposite direction.

Kim Tan had come to her rescue thrice in a day ( if she didn't count the time he pulled her out of Choi Young Do's grasp this morning.)

Ji Ah shivered, and wrapped her arms around herself, as a cool breeze brushed past her.

Why didn't he hate her too like Halmeonim?

The rest of the classes passed peacefully and lunch break came. Ji Ah's stomach was churning because she didn't have anything for breakfast due to her strained nerves. She poured herself a plate, and sat down at a table.

Ji Ah would sometimes wonder if this was a punishment for her lack of gratitude towards food. She silently complained about the food everytime she sat down to eat with her father because she thought there were more tasty things her father had purposely deprived her of. Today, she would be happy to eat only vegetables and fruits, but the ones with a taste. Not the ones which left a weird metallic taste in her mouth which wouldn't go away even with water.

"Get up. This is my seat." A somber looking guy with huge glasses hovered over her.

Ji Ah frowned, and placed her fork in her plate. "You can sit there." She motioned to the seat in front of her, trying to be nice while he wasn't.

"I can't." He replied tersely. "Get up."

Ji Ah frowned again in disappointment. She didn't want to argue, so she stood up and squinted at the cafeteria, looking for another completely empty table.

She turned around when she heard a ruckus from behind her. Young Do had taken a seat across from the glasses guy and was eyeing Ji Ah with interest, while two of his other friends gathered around the glasses guy, jeering at him and throwing food at him, as he tried to ignore them to eat silently.

Ji Ah scowled at them. "What are you doing?!"

"What?!" Said one of the guy picking on the glasses guy. "Do you want to join us?"

"I don't mind." Young Do chipped in, raising his hand.

"Ya!" Ji Ah moved forward, but --for the fourth time that day-- Kim Tan showed up out of nowhere and seized her arm, pulling her away.

"What are you doing?!" She cried, trying to look over her shoulder at the glasses guy.

Kim Tan pushed her into a chair and plopped himself on the one across from her. Ji Ah glared at him.

"Don't interfere." He warned.

"Why?" Ji Ah said crossly.

"Do you want to sit in that spot?" He said sardonically, and Ji Ah faltered.

"Why don't _you_ stop them?" Ji Ah said, suggesting more than asking.

"Because it was started by me." Kim Tan imparted, picking up a fork to begin eating.

Ji Ah was taken aback.

She glanced down at her plate. She was hungry, but didn't feel like eating anymore.

Someone placed their plate filled with food next to Ji Ah's. She looked up to see Young Do pulling the chair beside her to sit.

"Can I join?" He arranged himself into the chair, looking back and forth between Kim Tan and Ji Ah with a slight tight lipped smile.

"Ani." Kim Tan said in an unfriendly tone.

"Too bad," Young Do mocked. "I already sat down." He then propped his elbow on the table, placing his head on his fist to face Ji Ah and made an aeygyo face. "Eat a lot Cha Ji Ah!" He mimicked a cute affectionate voice.

Ji Ah scoffed at him. _Complete weirdo!_

She couldn't eat with this guy by her side.

"I have lost my appetite." She stood up, but a faint gasp when Young Do grabbed her arm and pulled her down again. "Don't go.' He threatened with his head bent down.

"What are you trying to do?" Kim Tan said, with hint of annoyance.

Young Do let go of her arm and raised his head. "I am just trying to be friendly." He said with an irritating mockful expression.

Ji Ah frowned, as she moved her head slightly away from him, and a curtain of her dark hair obscured his face from her view.

"We don't want your friendliness." Kim Tan glared at Young Do.

"I have been rejected?" Ji Ah could hear Young Do's amusement in his voice.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

**_Please review, because I am losing the motivation to write :D_**

**_I want to know if someone finds it worth reading. :)_**

**_Interesting scenes in the next chapter, I promise._**

**_~Fawns_**


	12. Chapter 12: I Want To Be Near You

**_• _****_I don't own the Heirs. _**

**•** **_English isnt my first language. So there ought to be some mistakes._**

**I Want To Be Near You**

"Cha Ji Ah, are you going to reject my heart too?" Ji Ah felt him turn to her. "What is this?" He said. "We know that your hair are pretty and all, but you don't need to flaunt them like this."

She knew he was referring to her hiding behind her hair, but she only turned her head away more. "Go away."

The next events happened in just a few moments.

Young Do tried to deliberately brush her hair out of her face, and his fingers grazed against her cheek. Ji Ah flinched away at once, pushing his hand away, but Kim Tan had already lunged at Young Do across the table, and seized Young Do's collar in his hand to yank him to his feet. Ji Ah also sprang up with a gasp.

"Don't touch her." Kim Tan growled in Young Do's face. The cafeteria had gone deathly silent and Ji Ah knew everyone had their eyes on them.

However, Young Do looked like he just won lottery.

He howled in ecstasy.

"What is this?!" He grinned at Kim Tan. "I only touched her hair and you flipped out. Why?"

Kim Tan stiffened in response.

''I would like to see your reaction if I touched more than that." Young Do smirked in a devilish way, raising his eyebrows smugly. He went on to give Ji Ah a sly look, and she almost shrunk back. Her hands began to quiver faintly.

Kim Tan jerked at Young Do's collar, snapping his attention back to himself. "You have stepped on the line."

"I plan to go further too." Young Do was evidently provoking him.

Ji Ah felt tears burn behind her eyes. She didn't want them to fight. As a person growing up in a violent enviroment, Ji Ah detested violence.

She grabbed Kim Tan's hand balled around Young Do's collar. "Let it go. He's provoking you intentionally." She said with a faint trembling in her voice.

Kim Tan didn't look at her; he was glaring at Young Do.

Young Do on the other hand, looked amused. "She is smart. No wonder I am into her."

Ji Ah almost cringed. She walked out to Kim Tan's side, and tugged at his arm because he looked like he was about to punch the amusment off Young Do's face. Kim Tan and Young Do stared each other down for a few seconds before Kim Tan let go of Young Do's collar roughly. He grasped Ji Ah wrist and stormed out of the Cafeteria.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Kim Tan paced back and forth in front of the lockers, looking ready to murder someone --preferably Choi Young Do.

"Avoid him." He suddenly turned to her. "As best as you can."

Ji Ah nodded with wide eyes, clasping her shaking hands together, but Kim Tan noticed.

He averted his eyes. "He is picking on you because of me. Try to stay closer to me so that I can protect you."

Ji Ah gazed up at him with watery eyes. "Don't." She said.

Kim Tan looked back to her.

"Don't protect me. I know it hurts you to see me... and it hurts me to see you too." Her voice dwindled, as she looked down. "Let's see each other less."

Ji Ah sniffed once, before brushing past Kim Tan, without seeing his shaking eyes.

Her last three sentences were exactly what _Cha Ji Ah_ had once said to him.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Ji Ah thought that was it for today. But Rachel cornered her outside the school doors, under school grounds.

"Your first day here and you already have Kim Tan and Choi Young Do at each other's throat." She sneered at Ji Ah.

Ji Ah frowned at her. "They were at each other's throat even before I stepped into the picture."

"I am warning you for the first and last time." Rachel slightly raised her eyebrows under the bush of hair on her forehead. "Leave this school. I don't want to see you around Kim Tan."

Ji Ah pursed her lips. "Do you think Kim Tan and I can't see each other outside of the school, if we want to?"

Rachel expressions morphed into a haughty disbelief.

"But don't worry." Ji Ah said. "I want to avoid Kim Tan just as much as you want me to. Be it in school or outside it."

She hurried past Rachel towards the school gate.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Mr Seo briefly called at night to inquire about her first day at school.

"It was good." She lied.

"Very well." He replied from the other side. "Are you taking your medicines regularly?"

"Ye." Ji Ah said, getting up from counter and placing her dirty plate in the sink.

There was a small pause then he asked. "And did you meet Kim Tan?"

Ji Ah halted while taking her coat off the hook on the door. "Ye. At the school."

She had decided earlier to not mention her actual first meering with Kim Tan.

"At the school?" He repeated.

"Ye." Ji Ah said, feeling a tinge of nervousness.

"Araso." He said. "Bye then. I have to go."

"Bye."

Ji Ah wriggled into the coat and pulled on her gloves before leaving her apartment for a short walk outside.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

**Kim Tan:** easily avoided.

**Choi Young Do: **avoided with difficultly.

**Rachel:** easily avoided.

**People asking her the same questions as Choi Young Do: **avoided with difficulty.

Ji Ah closed her notebook, sitting in a corner of library, away from everyone. The day had been uneventful so far, and Ji Ah hoped for it to stay that way till she was home safely.

She picked up her stuff, and left the library to head to her locker.

As she fumbled for a textbook in her locker, Ji Ah felt her cell phone vibrate. **_The Bike Creep_** glowed on the screen. Ji Ah sighed, and turned around, while contemplating picking it, just to find Young Do standing right in front of her.

She gasped, and drew back against the locker, nearly dropping her phone in shock. "What are you doing?!"

Young Do leaned forward, and placed his hand on the locker beside her. "Why aren't you picking up?" His lips were curved upward, but his eyes were menacing.

Ji Ah blinked several times at him with wide eyes, and dug herself more into the lockers, hiding away her phone's screen immediately.

"Why are you calling when we are at the same place?" She decided to turn offensive instead of defensive.

Young Do eyed her phone once before smiling flirtatiously at her.

"Why? Would you rather see me in person?" He said huskily.

Ji Ah scoffed. "Please move."

Without warning, Young Do snatched her phone out of her hand.

"Ya!" Ji Ah cried, lunging for her phone, but he raised his hand high, and Ji Ah only managed to grasp air.

"The bike creep?" He arched a brow at her.

Ji Ah pouted in irritation.

"Aish! I didn't even do anything creepy. Do you know how many creepy things other guys do?" He furrowed his expressive brows in fake offense.

"I don't want to know. Please, give me my phone back." She reached for her phone again, but he moved it out of her reach.

"Let me change my name." He began typing in her phone. Ji Ah was about to argue, but realised he wouldn't leave her alone if she didn't let him do it.

He finished and held out her phone back to her. She almost snatched it from his hand, like that day, and thrust it into her pocket.

Ji Ah moved back to her locker, and pulled out her textbook before shutting it close. She ignored Young Do, as she stalked in a direction with her textbook clutched to her chest, but Young Do wasn't going to ignore her. He joined her, matching her footsteps with his.

"Where to?" He tilted his head, speaking in a fake sweet voice.

"To hell." Ji Ah replied with frostiness. She had not forgotten the things he had said yesterday, but she had pushed back the fear for the time being. If she didn't want Kim Tan to protect her, then she needed to do it herself.

Young Do gave a deep amused chuckle. "You wouldn't suit there. That's a place for people like me."

"At least you acknowledge that." Ji Ah said drily, staring straight ahead.

Young Do grinned in amusement beside her.

"I was wondering if you didn't have a tongue, now I know you do." He mocked.

Ji Ah shoot him an annoyed look before pushing open the classroom door, and stepping in.

To her disappointment, Young Do sat on the desk next to her. She was glad there was a significant distance between desks.

More students filled in, along with a teacher, and the class began.

Out of her peripheral view, Ji Ah could see Young Do glancing at her every now and then, though she didn't glance back at him.

When the class ended, she shoot out of her seat, and battled her way through the students to reach library. She flopped down in a chair, and gazed about her suspiciously. He hadn't followed her.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Ji Ah woke up panting and threw off her blanket. She still felt suffocated, so she shakily pulled off her shirt and her pajamas. She had left the light on, and she could see 4:36 am on the clock at her study table. She placed her feet down on the floor, and gazed down at her terribly shaking hands and battered fingernails. She was trembling all over.

Her landlady shouted something from upstairs, but Ji Ah couldn't make out what, as she reached over to her side table and picked up the medicine bottle that her psychiatrist had prescribed for her. Therapy had not helped so far and the psychiatrist had only diagnosed her with mutiple disorders.

She edged closer to her side table, and poured herself a glass of water. Ji Ah gulped down a tablet to calm her nerves, and placed a hand on her thundering heart afterwards.

There were new additions to her nightmares. Some people she could recognize, some she couldn't. But one thing was constant.

_His_ dead open eyes.

They were never going to leave her alone.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Ji Ah was walking nonchalantly to her locker with her hands tucked in her pockets when she saw the crowd gathered around a commotion. It sounded as though someone was being slammed against a locker repeatedly. Despite what happened to her on the first day, Ji Ah didn't learn her lesson. It was more out of worry than curiosity, though, that she went forward, and saw Young Do and the glasses guy, whose name she had learned was Moon Joon Young.

A bad tempered looking Young Do was slamming Joon Young into the locker repeatedly. Ji Ah felt her anxiety rise as the sound of Joon Young being harshly slammed into the lockers, echoed in the hallway.

Young Do hovered over Joon Young in a frightening menace. "Did you think I wouldn't find out if you reported anonymously?" He said darkly. "I have been so nice to you, then why are you being so hard?"

Ji Ah looked at the end of the hallway, hoping to see some teacher or staff, but there were none.

Young Do straightened up and waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, Joon Young-ah," Young Do drawled in a derisive manner. "Forget everything else. Just how many times do I have to remind you that your father may pick his calls, but my father's secretary picks my father's calls." Young Do seemed like he was scolding a child.

Ji Ah scowled vaguely to herself. What was so boastful about the wealth his father had? What was Young Do's doing in it, anyway?

Joon Young seemed to be thinking along the same lines for he was glowering fiercely at Young Do from under his huge glasses. His breathing was ragged, and his nostrils were flared, as though he were holding back his anger with great difficulty.

"Why do you make it hard for yourself?" Young Do mocked, as he tossed Joon Young's head sideways roughly with two fingers. Ji Ah grimaced. "See, now I have to --" He did it again. "-- do this to you with everyone watching."

Joon Young's glare, and his breathing intensified while Ji Ah felt horribly apprehensive.

"What? Do you want to say something?" Young do scoffed. "Look down." He smacked Joon Young downwards on head, tossing his face down, however Joon Young looked up again. Young Do continued to slap his head and order him to look down.

However, Joon Young had been on the edge, and he exploded with anger that must had been bottling up for a very long time.

Gasps sounded around the hallway, as Joon Young gave a war cry and pushed Young Do away abruptly before stricking him sharply across the face with his school bag.

A dealthy silence fell over the hallway after this.

Young Do slowly turned his face, and touched the bloody cut on his cheekbone in a kind of daze.

He gave a dark chuckle upon seeing blood on his fingers.

"You hit me?" He said in a conceited disbelief, then widened his eyes menacingly at Joon Young. "Do you want to die?!"

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

**_Currently, I have only one follower of this story: i.bite.you.519._**

**_ And I want to thank them. Thank you i.bite.you.519 for following and reading._**

**_:)_**

**_~Fawns_**


	13. Chapter 13: How Can You Ruffle Me

**_I dont own the Heirs._****_English isn't my first language, so there may be mistakes._****_Ani means informal no._**

**_Eo means informal yes. _**

**How Can You Ruffle Me So Easily**

"You bastard! I tried keep it in!" Joon Young yelled through flared nostrils.

Ji Ah had a sinking feeling that Joon Young was going to get his bones broken by Young Do today. She desperately prayed that a teacher show up before Joon Young was on his way to heaven.

"--But I will not now. I am going to transfer soon. I will not take up your shit anymore, you bastard!" Joon Young pounced at Young Do.

Ji Ah nearly shrieked, when Young Do quickly ducked, grabbed Joon Young around the armpit and in a swift motion, hurled him over his shoulder like a potato sack, and dumped him on the ground with a loud thud.

Ji Ah's throat tightened, as she watched Joon Young lay groaning in pain, on the ground.

She raised her gaze to Young Do and her heart jumped up to her throat to see him looking straight at her.

Slightly out of breath, he pushed his shoulders back and stood up straighter, boring his dark eyes into hers.

Ji Ah involuntarily took a shaky step back.

Young Do simply looked terrifying --at least to her-- as he stood tall and placed a foot cruelly on Joon Young's shoulder. Ji Ah flinched when Joon Young cried out in pain. She wanted to do something for him, but she wasn't feeling brave enough right now.

Young Do's piercing gaze didn't waver from her face. "If you were going to hold it in, then you should have held it in longer." Ji Ah's eyes went more round, as she realised he was speaking to her and not Joon Young. "I am excited to see what will happen to you from now on." The threat behind his words was evident.

Ji Ah gulped.

Young Do held Ji Ah's gaze, as he pressed hard on Joon Young's shoulder once again. She didn't flinch this time, since she was more focused on Young Do. It was he who broke the eye contact, turning away from them and swaggering away with his lackeys by his side.

Everyone slowly cleared up and went away, leaving Joon Young sprawled out on the floor alone. Ji Ah stepped forward and helped a grunting Joon Young sit up. Now that Young Do was out of sight, she was feeling a little braver.

Suddenly Kim Tan appeared out of nowhere --as he had a tendency to do so -- grabbed her arm and slammed her into the locker with a slight force.

Ji Ah gasped. "What happened?!"

"Didn't I tell you to not to interfere?" Kim Tan said angrily.

"When did I interfere? I was just--"

"Just what? Helping?" Kim Tan cut her off sharply. "Once you help a weak person here, you become one of them."

His words struck something deeper within.

Was that what had happened to her back then? When she had entered the club to help those girls, and she had almost ended up becoming a victim.

In fact, she had _actually_ become a victim. Just not of rape.

Though, in some people's story she was a perpetrator.

Kim Tan had walked away in annoyance. Joon Young had lifted himself to his feet --walking stiffly with grunts and groans in the empty hallway-- and everyone had gone to the classes.

But Ji Ah; she stayed glued to the lockers in the same spot Kim Tan had slammed her.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Ji Ah avoided the sulky looking Young Do for the rest of the day. She took a U turn whenever she saw him coming or entered some random class if it were too late for a U turn.

Although she was not the only one to fear him more today. She noticed people jumping out of his way more than usual.

In washroom, while washing hands, she stopped momentarily when she heard Kang Ye Seol mention to Lee Hyun Bi that Choi Young Do often practiced Judo with his father. Ji Ah also learned that this was not the first time Young Do had beaten someone up at school. Needless to say, she wasn't surprised at all.

She washed her hands quickly and went to her locker to retrieve her stuff, then moved to the classroom. Young Do was sitting next to her desk and Ji Ah contemplated changing her seat, but thought better of it and made her way to her desk, next to Young Do with her eyes downcast. She didn't want to tick him off in any way today.

The class began, and Ji Ah saw him glancing at her every now and then like he usually did, and she didn't pay him any noticeable attention like always.

When the class ended, Ji Ah didn't shoot out of her chair as usual, because she needed to take notes. Young Do on the other hand was not taking notes. She could see his pen moving in a doodling motion on his notebook out of the corner of her eyes, and she could also see that he was staring at her.

Ji Ah tried to focus on the words on white board and appear normal as she copied them faster. Her hair dangled in her face from the side she hadn't pinned them back. That side happened to be the one facing Young Do and Ji Ah brushed them back at once upon remembering what he had done a few days back.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Work was gruelling today, because someone had booked the whole restaurant for a birthday party. Little kids were cute, only when you didn't have to look after them.

But, the bonus point: Ji Ah got to leave much earlier.

Her mind wandered as she walked tired steps to a convenience store near her apartment. She arranged herself on a chair outside the store where she often sat, and perched her handbag on the table with a sigh. Ji Ah tugged up the neck of her sweater more to shield her face against the chill and placed her head on her bag tiredly.

Her lids felt heavy, as she vaguely sensed someone pulling a chair across from her and placing something on the table.

"Ya." The person seemingly addressed her. Ji Ah had a faint thought that the voice sounded familiar.

"Ya!" He hit the table below her head with his foot.

Ji Ah snapped back to consciousness completely.

_It can't be. _She told herself inwardly, with half opened eyelids.

"Ya!" He hit her ankle this time with his shoe, making Ji Ah give a small grunt, but she closed her eyes completely. She was now certain that it was Choi Young Do.

"Why do you always look so vulnerable?" He said, then added in a low tone. "It makes me want to protect you."

Ji Ah scoffed into her bag. Protect her? He was the one she needed to be protected from. He was mocking her again, she assumed, though there was something odd about his tone.

"Ya!" He hit the table below her head again, with more force than earlier.

Ji Ah sat up straight. "What?" She barked at him. Why did she had to run into him out of all the people in the world?

Young Do looked amused, as though this was just the reaction he wanted. He had a tiny bandage on his cheekbone where Joon Young's bag had cut him and he was wearing a black leather jacket which completed his bad boy look.

"Were you sleeping? Did I disturb you?" He smirked, picking up his chopsticks and twirling them in the bowl of noodles in front of him.

Ji Ah glared at him silently. She picked up her bag to leave, but Young Do grabbed an ankle of her between his shoes under the table.

Ji Ah frowned at him, taken aback. She tugged at her foot and his hold tightened.

"What are you doing?"

He slurped his noodles. "I want your awake company."

Ji Ah blinked at him.

She tugged at her foot again, but let out a cry of surpise, holding the table firmly, when he also tugged in return, nearly pulling her off her chair.

"Let go!" She scowled at him.

Young Do went back to his noodles, unfazed.

Ji Ah sighed in defeat. She turned away from him and gazed at the evening sky, which was almost too bright over her head. Her eyes watered slightly when she stared at it for too long. Young Do ate while staring at her silently and Ji Ah tried to not squirm under his gaze, as she involuntarily began picking at the tip of her thumbnail in her lap. Why was he always staring? She didn't dare tug at her foot again for the fear that he may jerk her off her chair in anger.

A cold breeze blew and she shivered, placing her cold hands on her no less cold cheeks.

"Am I making you blush?" Young Do smiled flirtatiously at her from the other side of the table.

Ji Ah scoffed and opened her handbag. "I am just cold."

"It's not even that cold today." He arched a brow.

She pulled out her gloves and began wriggling them on. "I am always cold." She said quietly, without looking at him.

Young Do felt there were more than one meaning behind her words.

She pulled on her gloves and placed her glove clad hands on her faintly red cheeks, turning away from him with her ankle still stuck between his shoes. She was always turning away from him; in classes, in hallways, in Cafeteria. Young Do thought bitterly, as he slurped the last bits of noodles from his bowl.

"Do you like ramen noodles?" She asked suddenly.

Young Do nearly choked on his noodles.

He raised his head to look at her in astonishment. Her tone had been unexpectedly gentle and of seemingly genuine interest. Her gaze was also nothing else right now, as she batted her lashes at him expectantly. Her big round eyes sparkled with something, but Young Do thought she looked innocent.

He recovered himself quickly and smirked at her. "Ani. I like black bean noodles more. Want to eat some time together?" He flashed her a charming smile.

"Eo." She said reluctantly, brushing away a dark strand that had fallen over her face.

Young Do raised his eyebrows in surpise.

"What other food are your favourite?" She asked curiously.

He lifted a brow at her. Was she drunk or something?

Young Do was too out of it to predict her actions, when Ji Ah suddenly jerked her foot out of his hold and sprang to her feet.

"I have to be somewhere. Bye." Her tone abruptly turned cold, as she picked up her handbag and moved past him in a frenzy.

Young Do blinked dumbly for a few moments at the empty chair in front of him. Then it dawned over him as to what Ji Ah had done. He leaned back in his chair and slapped a hand on the table in disappointment.

"Innocent, my ass!" He grumbled out loud.

He would get back at her for this. Although, he was more ruffled by how he had fallen for it.

He scowled at the cold noodle soup in the bowl in front of him as if it had been the one to upset him.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Ji Ah tried to ignore them while she opened her lockers.

"Please take back the lawsuit Young Do-ya" Joon Young's meek voice reached her. There was no trace of fire in his voice, that had possessed him yesterday, and that, for some reason, broke Ji Ah's heart.

"Why?" Young Do's amusement shone in his voice. "I was advised weeks to recover by my doctor. You should use a lot of money now and get a good lawyer."

Ji Ah finally looked at them. Joon Young was almost bowing to Young Do with the lawsuit clutched in his hands while Young Do was looking over him with a wicked smile.

Ji Ah scowled resentfully. This was not fair. Young Do could pick someone up and throw them to the ground without anyone batting an eye, yet Joon Young merely defended himself and Young Do filed a lawsuit. She wished she could do something, but she was not [Cha Ji Ah] in power, nor Rachel in confidence.

"Please, Young Do-ya." Joon Young begged.

Young Do smirked, taking immense pleasure in being in control. "Let me think." He said. "I can't guarantee it... but I will consider taking lawsuit back if you kneeled."

Ji Ah felt tears welling up in her eyes.

_Don't do it! Don't do it! _she chanted in her mind.

But Joon Young was slowly bending his knees one by one.

Tears slipped onto Ji Ah's cheeks while Young Do's body shook with a deep cruel laugh as he looked down upon Joon Young kneeling in front of him, with a devilish satisfication on his face.

_In that moment,_ Ji Ah _loathed _Young Do madly.

She turned away because she couldn't take it anymore. She hid behind her locker door, clasping a hand to her quivering mouth and crying silently.

Joon Young had merely given Young Do a cut on cheek and Young Do made him kneel in front of everyone. Ji Ah had done something far worse to another spoiled rich brat. She shivered to imagine what would have happened to her, had she been caught?

She closed her locker softly and slipped away from the scene with a terribly aching heart.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**black-miracle thank you for following the story.**

**I am uploading this chapter earlier because I am happy due to this new follow :D**

**_~Fawns_**


	14. Chapter 14: I Don't Even Understand

**_• I don't own the Heirs._**

**_• English isn't my first language. _**

**I Don't Even Understand Myself**

Ji Ah was packing her stuff in class when Kang Ye Seol and her two friends approached her.

"Cha Ji Ah," Kang Ye Seol leaned against her desk. "We are going shopping after school. Do you want to join us?"

Ji Ah was taken aback by the out of blue offer.

"Erm..I think I am busy today." She saw Rachel glance at her once, as Ji Ah picked up her stuff and stood up.

Lee Hyun Bi regarded her with a haughty look on her face. "Then we can go tomorrow."

"Eo." Son Oh Mi agreed. Kang Ye Seol also shrugged her shoulders in agreement.

"Um.. I am busy for some days. I am sorry." Ji Ah mumbled and hurried to leave the classroom.

During lunch, Ji Ah heard murmurs of Kim Tan having punched Young Do after he made Joon Young kneel. And Ji Ah actually spotted a bruised lip on Young Do when she threw a furtive glance in his direction where he sat with his lackeys.

This made her feel a bit better. Choi Young Do deserved it.

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Her phone vibrated in her pocket, as Ji Ah walked out of the school gates. She pulled it out and her eyes darted around immediately upon seeing Choi Young Do's name on the screen. Thankfully, he was nowhere in sight. She slipped the phone back in her pocket and ran for her life.

Ji Ah squinted at the bright yet soothing sun, jogging through the pavement and stopped once to ask for directions. She detested delivery jobs, but a guy was absent on work today, so she had to fill in for him. Good thing, she was getting paid for it separately.

Ji Ah spotted the mechanic shop.

"Your food is here!" She said, upon pushing open the door.

Ji Ah placed the chicken box on the table and they paid her. She was counting the money when someone stepped closer. "How much is one chicken?"

"9000 won--"

Her hands froze, and she felt the blood draining out of her face. She slowly raised her head.

Choi Young Do was smirking down at her her with his arms crossed over his chest.

_Why him?! Why him again?! _Ji Ah thought miserably.

"Why our new money is delivering food around like a social care?" He said sarcastically, uncrossing his arms and arching a brow thoughtfully.

Ji Ah looked away, licking her lips and swallowing. She had nothing to say

"You didn't answer my call today." He reminded her, sounding smug, and Ji Ah looked back at him. "Answer my calls from now on." He raised his eyebrows in a sort of warning, before swaggering inside the shop. Ji Ah's glare followed him.

The sun wasn't soothing anymore when she stepped out of the shop.

She hated delivery jobs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ji Ah sat on her single bed, clutching her ringing phone in her hands. Choi Young Do's name was shining on the screen.

If he were to tell everyone at school as to why she had been delivering food around when she was new money, then school would become hell for her. She had seen Kang Ye Seol and other spoiled rich brats bullying other social care students. (There were barely any because they always transferred to other schools).

Even if he didn't tell anyone, he himself was enough to make it hell for her. Like he did for Moon Joon Young.

Ji Ah held the phone to her ear.

"Yeoboseyo." Young Do drawled in a aeygyo voice from the other side.

Ji Ah pursed her lips.

"What's our _new money _doing?" He said in the same irritating tone.

_Contemplating killing myself. _

"What do you want?"

"What? I just want to chit chat." He scoffed. "You remember you said you would eat black bean noodles with me, yesterday." He reminded her meaningfully.

Ji Ah tucked a few strands behind her ear and her eyes shifted about the room. "Umm..I don't feel like it anymore." She said.

"Why? Because you were not going to eat with me in the first place?" He taunted.

Ji Ah didnt say anything. She looked down and pulled her bottom lip under her teeth, feeling slightly abashed.

"You are not as innocent as you appear." He said as though offended by the revelation. "You _proved _it today." He emphasised dramatically on 'proved'.

Ji Ah scowled. He was referring to her lying about being new money.

She tried to keep her tone blank when she spoke. "I feel sleepy. Good night."

"Answer one question before sleeping" He said sharply. "What is it between you and Kim tan?"

"I have told you already, there is nothing." She said almost at once, annoyed.

"Then why is he protective of you?"

"Why do you care?" She shoot back.

"Tell me when I am being nice." He nearly growled.

Ji Ah faltered.

"What do I take this silence for?" He muttered sarcastically when she didn't answer.

"For that I am sleepy. Bye." She ended the call before he could respond. He didn't call again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ji Ah closed the novel in her hands and stood up from the bench to stretch with a tired groan. She looked at the bright blue sky with droopy eyes and a small smile. She always found the blue brightness of the sky and the pale traversing clouds fascinating. For some reason, the sky gave her a sense of freedom.

Young Do leaned lazily against the railing, staring at Ji Ah with slightly parted lips. She was stretching her upper body like a cat and gazing at the sky with a child like smile. A woman in one moment and a child in another. He felt a naughty smile tugging at his lips.

That smile disappeared slowly, though when he saw Kim Tan strolling in Ji Ah's direction with ear plugs plugged in. His back was facing Young Do. Ji Ah didn't seem to notice Kim Tan --or Young Do-- as she walked in Young Do's direction with her eyes downcast and her book held to her chest. He was reminded of the day he had seen her waddling outside the store, half asleep. Young Do watched with interest, sensing that something was going to happen.

And it did.

Some girls were passing by while chatting loudly. One of them bumped into Ji Ah roughly --which Young Do suspected was intentional. She looked so vulnerable all the time that she was a perfect target to pick on.

He stood up straighter when Ji Ah stumbled, dropping her book and almost falling herself. However Kim Tan jumped forward and enveloped her into his arms at once, as though his eyes had been on her all this time. Young Do's eyes narrowed as Kim Tan wrapped his arms around her torso; one on her waist and another on her back. Ji Ah raised her head from his chest after the initial shock and Kim Tan lowered his head to gaze at her face. They were intimately close.

Young Do tightened his lips and narrowed his eyes at the sight.

They stood gazing at each other for a few moments before Ji Ah pushed at his chest.

Kim Tan didn't budge.

She did it again and Kim Tan stayed still with his eyes on Ji Ah's face.

Young Do chuckled darkly. "Then she says there is nothing between them."

Ji Ah glanced around once, but didn't spot him. Young Do tilted his head. She seemed afraid that someone may see them.

She said something to Kim Tan. Young Do couldn't exactly comprehend their expressions from where he was standing. Ji Ah bent her head for some reason while Kim Tan slowly loosened his grip on her and finally took his hands off her. Ji Ah took two steps back, then turned and moved stiffly in Young Do's direction. Her face was red and her eyes were downcast as she passed him, without noticing him. Kim Tan, however, noticed him as his gaze was following Ji Ah, it landed on Young Do.

Young Do smirked at a stoic faced Kim Tan, before tucking his hands in his pockets and moving in the same direction where Ji Ah had gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ji Ah opened her notebook and revised yesterday's work. Young Do and Kim Tan didn't have this class in their schedule. So, she always came early to this class.

She had barely gone through the first page when a grumpy looking Young Do walked in.

"Everyone out." He barked.

There were just a few students in the classroom and they sprang to their feet upon hearing Young Do's command and scurried to the door. Ji Ah pursed her lips and also stood up, wanting to leave his presence too, but Young Do turned to her.

"You stay." He said. There were no traces of any amusment or smugness on his face.

Ji Ah's heart sank and glanced at the door. His lackeys were standing on guard outside. What was he upto?

"Why?" She said defiantly.

Young Do stalked towards her and Ji Ah leaned back. There was no space behind her to move back. He came close and perched himself comfortably on her desk.

"I have some questions for you." He said in a matter of fact tone.

"I am not obliged to answer any of your question." Ji Ah lifted her chin up slightly and felt proud of herself for sounding strong.

Young Do made a sour expression. Ji Ah tried to slip away from him, but he grabbed her arm and forced her down in her chair.

"Araso. I will only ask one question." He said looking away once, before he turned back to her. "You are not new money, are you?"

Ji Ah decided she preferred a smiling Young Do more, despite how irritating he were. At least he didnt look that scary with a smile.

She couldn't answer his question, so she tried to get up again, but Young Do seized her arm again and yanked her back in her seat.

"Choi Young Do!" Ji Ah cried out instinctively. What was his problem?

Young raised his eyebrows and scratched a brow with his thumb in irritation.

Ji Ah knew she shouldn't, but she hoped Kim Tan would burst through the door as she glanced at it in agitation.

Young Do waited patiently for her asnwer while looking away from her, his gaze fixed om some spot on the wall. Ji Ah was certain he would jerk her back in her seat if she were to try to get up again. She realised, he must be angry because she had ended the call abruptly last night.

Kim Tan didn't burst through the door, but a scowling Bona did.

"What do you think are you doing?! Why are you blocking everyone?!" She snapped at Young Do in her usual childish manner that reminded Ji Ah a lot of a childhood friend.

"You came just at the right time." Young Do said with a tight lipped smile, slipping off the desk.

He picked up Ji Ah's hangbag and unzipped it all at once.

"What are you doing?!" Ji Ah jumped to her feet when Young Do turned it over and began throwing all its contents on the floor.

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**Thank you everyone for following or favourite-ing the story. If you want me to put some scene in for Young Do and Ji Ah, something that you want to see, let me know. **

**_~Fawns_**


	15. Chapter 15: I Meant To Behave

**_•I dont own the heirs._****_•English isnt my first language, neither is korean._****_• sonnyeo means granddaughter._**

**I Meant To Behave But There Were So Many Other Options**

Ji Ah looked at her stuff scattering the floor in bewilderment. What was he doing? Didn't his Eomeonim ever teach him to never go through a girl's bag?

Young Do tossed her bag aside carelessly and moved forward to snatch Bona's bag from her shoulder. He opened it and dumped its content on the floor too, beside Ji Ah's stuff.

"Ya! Are you crazy?!" Bona moved closer, looking ready to pounce at Young Do at any given moment. However, Young Do was completely relaxed.

"Look," He said, looking down at the things strewn on the floor with smugness, then looking back at Ji Ah.

And she finally realised what he was doing when she really looked at the stuff on the floor.

She pursed her lips.. Apparently, Ji Ah's things were cheap looking and Bona's were expensive.

Realisation dawned on Bona's face too, though clouded by confusion. Ji Ah felt her face burn, as she looked away and bit her lip.

Who was he? Just who was he to do all this and humiliate her like this? Angry tears formed in her eyes.

"Bona," Young Do drawled, but his eyes were on Ji Ah. "Doesn't it look like she isn't new money?"

Ji Ah turned her head vaguely in Bona's direction to look at her.

"I don't know!" Bona said in her American accent, bending down to collect her stuff. "Why would I care?"

Ji Ah wasn't sure, but she felt that Bona was uneasy.

"You should." Young Do scoffed, smugness dripping from his voice. "If we have been lied to, then we are all victims here." He cocked his head at Ji Ah and smiled wickedly. "How would everyone react if they found out you have lied to them. Should I call them in now? and tell them everything?" Young Do said the last part in a low threatening tone.

Ji Ah scowled at him with wet eyes. Was he trying to blackmail her?

"Do whatever you want!" She said venomously, raising her eyebrows. If he were doing it because of Kim Tan then she had already told him a thousand times that they had nothing. And if he were doing it because of last night, then he was completely childish.

Young Do lifted a brow in surpise. He stepped forward and Ji Ah drew back at once, feeling her composure waver. His 6 something height wasn't helping either, as he completely towered over her.

"Should I really do _whatever _I want?" His voice lowered, as he smirked, his eyes twinkling with something.

Ji Ah faltered, swallowing uncomfortably as his words sunk in, but in the next moment she felt her temper rise even more. She decided she was already over the border line, so she may as well explore the country too.

"Go to hell." She spat each word clearly, gazing straight into his dark eyes while her heart hammered madly in her chest.

Bona had collected her stuff and was now watching the exchange between them with a frown.

He chuckled devilishly. "What's making you so brave, I wonder? Is it Kim Tan?" He added meaningfully at the end, making Ji Ah's blood boil.

She wanted to use every curse word she knew at him --though she knew very little curse words. She curled her faintly shaking hands into fists.

"Get lost!"

To her further chagrin, his shoulders shook with an irritating laugh. She wanted to claw that look off his face with her nails.

He stepped closer again and Ji Ah didn't flinch back this time, but she was sure she looked more pathetic than brave right now.

Yoon Chan, their class president and Bona's boyfriend, appeared unexpectedly by Ji Ah's side before Young Do could say anything more.

"What's going on here?" He demanded sternly, his eyes bouncing from Ji Ah's stuff littered on the floor to a now annoyed looking Young Do, then to Ji Ah --who most likely looked shaken.

"Young Do threw our things on the floor!" Bona complained immediately.

Young Do sighed. "I was having a friendly talk with my friend here." He gave Yoon Chan a slight tight lipped smile, gesturing towards Ji Ah. She scoffed at him.

"I know your _friendly._" Yoon Chan said, his gaze growing cold.

Young Do turned back to Ji Ah and clapped his hands together. "Then we will continue this conversation later." He told her with the same tight lipped smile. Ji Ah silently glared at him in response and forced herself to stay still as he moved past her to leave the class, his arm brushing against her.

Ji Ah went to find her bag and crouched down on her knees to pick up the rest of her stuff. Yoon Chan helped her and disgruntled looking Bona stalked away to her seat.

"Avoid him." Yoon Chan advised her as he handed her diary to her.

"That's what I have been trying to do." She mumbled weakly, taking her diary from him.

Kim Tan didn't intend to to look into her notebook, but as he was passing by her empty spot in library, he had a glimpse of something, that caused him to look back.

In one upper right corner of a page riddled with messy words, there were some familiar looking doodles; tiny broken hearts, drawn with a pen.

Kim Tan stared, suddenly going back in time when Cha Ji Ah and Kim Tan had tried to study together, once. She was upset with him, so she was pretending to study, while doodling on one upper right corner of her textbook's page. Kim Tan had joked that it was his heart she was breaking on the paper.

He looked up at Hae Na Ri, standing in the aisle in front of him and picking out some book from a shelves. Her forehead was puckered thoughtfully, and lips were drawn into a pout.

Kim Tan looked away. Though he threw an involuntary sidelong glance at her notebook once, before moving away.

Ji Ah carefully placed the small chocolate cake on the table.

"Should I arrange the candles too, sir?" She asked the old man.

"Ne." He said in a deep voice. "Also lit them."

Ji Ah picked up candles and began placing them in a circular shape. "I think you should lit them when your granddaughter is here." Ji Ah smiled in politness.

The old man's forhead creased and he gave a grim smile. "She is not going to be."

Ji Ah stilled and her smile faded. "Why?"

"She is busy, today." He smiled wryly gazing at her.

Ji Ah's lips parted in a 'ohh'. She understood now why the old man appeared sad.

"When does your birthday come?" He asked her out of nowhere.

"My birthday?" Ji Ah said. She didn't remember Cha Ji Ah's birthday, so she thought about her own. "Its around 3 months from now."

"Is that so?" He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Then why don't you celebrate it early with me. I will assume my sonnyeo is here with me, and you get to celebrate twice." He smiled warmly at her.

Ji Ah felt skeptical. She glanced at her manager nervously.

"I will talk to him." He assured her upon noticing.

Ji Ah wasn't going to celebrate her birthday this year at all. She wasn't particularly excited for it either, but as the old man looked at her with warmth, she realised this might be the only birthday she would get to celebrate with someone like him. Besides, what could be a better birthday than cheering someone up?

Ji Ah felt a shy smile made its way to her face. "Then I should lit the candles, sir!"

The lines on the old man's forehead smoothed and he smiled contenfully.

"You can call me, Halabeonim." He told her.

"Ye, Halabeonim." Ji Ah smiled, lighting the candles one by one, then she took a seat across from him.

"I will be 19 soon, so I will assume I am celebrating my own 19th birthday." She said gleefully while Halabeonim listened with interest.

"Let's both blow out the candles at the same time." She suggested. He nodded and pushed back his thin glasses on his nose, before turning to the cake, which was placed in the middle of the table.

"1," Ji Ah counted. "2, 3!"

They both blew at the candles.

"Happy Birthday to your sonnyeo!" Ji Ah clapped and beamed like a child, feeling good in a long time.

Halabeonim chortled. "Happy Birthday to you!" He said.

Ji Ah thought about piano, as she chewed boiled meat languidly, sitting at the kitchen counter. Her mind kept drifting back to it.

At school, in music room, she had seen Kang Ye Seol playing piano and Ji Ah had been so tempted, but she had restrained herself. The fact that she had never learned piano -- and she found it through internet that it really wasn't [that[ easy to play piano-- had been freaking her out lately. And the other odd things happening to her had not been helpful at all.

For example, she had been craving chocolate shakes out of blue, despite having never been fond of them before. She used to hate chocolate because it felt too sweet in beginning and too bitter after a few bites, but she had an odd craving for it now. Maybe that was due to her taste disability.

Another thing; she would often see something or hear a song that she would feel she had seen this thing or heard it somewhere before, yet she just can't put her finger on it. It gave her a constant feeling of anxiety. As though she was supposed to remember something, but can't, no matter how much she strained her memory. Some things that felt familiar yet so unfamiliar at the same time. One day, she broke down into tears when she saw some attractive looking handmade soaps on a stall in street. The Ajhumani selling it offered her a free one out of pity. That one green coloured soap still laid in a drawer in her cupboard, though she had not looked at it again since then. She blamed it all on her depression episodes, but deep down she felt something was off.

Perhaps it was the injury on her head that messed with her mind so much. She thought about one more appointment with her psychiatrist, as Mr Seo had suggested, but what was the point when she couldn't talk her heart out? She had gotten medicine to calm her after her nightmares. That was enough for now. As for her Amaxophobia, she liked to pretend that she had no phobia.

The truck nightmare, she must have seen Ji Ah's accident before she blacked out, but she couldn't remember it in her conscious mind. She assured herself, cleaning up and standing up to go out for a walk.

As the test papers were getting distributed, Ji Ah didn't feel the same anxiety she usually did when she sat down for a test. She could even fail this test and go home bouncing on her feet because her father wouldn't be waiting there to raise hell. Though she didn't plan to fail; she just didn't feel pressurized to get the first rank.

The test ended and Ji Ah handed back the paper, feeling satisfied with her performance. She didn't believe she would get any exceptional rank, since the students here had special expensive tutors hired for them by their parents. Ji Ah could never match their intelligence.

While everyone was handing back their test papers, Ji Ah caught Young Do glancing at her. She threw him a frosty look before standing up to retrieve her notebook from the teacher's desk. Ji Ah didn't see Young do following her.

When she grabbed her notebook, another hand grabbed it too. Ji Ah looked up to see an impish looking Young Do staring at her. Ji Ah tugged at her notebook, but he didn't let go. She glared at him and tugged at her notebook once again. He still didn't let go. Ji Ah scowled at him. An annoyingly amused smile was settled on his lips.

Ji Ah grasped her notebook with both hands and went to yank it out of his hold again.

He let go of it abruptly.

She gave a small gasp, as she stumbled backward with her own force, but managed to regain her balance.

Young Do looked like he were going to crack his jaw with how wide he was grinning at her.

"Aish!" Her hand twitched while restraining herself from throwing the notebook at his smug face. She scowled at him through a few strands dangling in her face. That for some reason seemed to amuse him even more.

Her cheeks felt hot and her eyes darted around once to see everyone into their own world and no one had seen Young Do making a fool out of her.

Clutching her notebook tightly in her hands and resisting the urge to stomp her feet childishly, she turned on her heels and stalked off to her seat. She set down her notebook heavily on the desk, causing her to receive a few looks.

_He has some nuts loose._ Ji Ah decided as if trying to comfort herself by that thought.

Young Do came back to his seat next to her. She brushed strands out of her face and flipped open her notebook roughly, ripping a page.

The class began and she did her best to make Young Do feel like he had suddenly gone invisible.

"Ya." Young Do called out to her softly when their teacher turned their back to them. Ji Ah ignored him and kept taking notes indifferently.

"Ya." Young Do called out again, slightly louder this time, perhaps assuming that Ji Ah had not heard. She ignored him again and stared at the board.

She flinched when Young Do hit her desk softly with the tip of his foot, jerking her pen with the movement and distorting her written words. Ji Ah cursed his long legs inwardly.

"Ya." He hit the desk softly again. However, Ji Ah was hell bent on ignoring him now.

She started humming casually, as she continued to write random things in her notebook.

"Ya!" Young Do hissed, hitting her table harshly now, distorting her words again.

They were receiving looks from the people around them, but one scary look from Young Do and everyone went back to their work.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

**Since I was late for the update last time, so I am updating early now. I got bookmarks and favourites so thats motivating me to write more. :D**

**_~Fawns_**


	16. Chapter 16: I Am Thinking About You

**_• I dont own the Heirs._**

**_•English or korean isnt my first language._**

**I Am Thinking About You**

Still humming softly, Ji Ah stayed unfazed and moved her pen nonchalantly over the pages of her notebook; drawing hearts, stars, circles, squares, writing alphabets from a to z.

Young Do seemed to be getting real annoyed now. He rattled her desk with his foot, completely deforming her favourite dialogue from a drama, yet Ji Ah carried on writing. He rattled her desk again when their teacher turned away and Ji Ah felt an earthquake shaking her, as she proceeded to put down jiggly words on the paper, with an admirable determination.

Sighing in exasperation, Young do leaned back in his chair and finally left her alone. Ji Ah couldn't hold back a small victorious smile breaking over her lips. Relaxing, Ji Ah went back to taking notes she had missed because of Young Do.

Hardly a minute had gone by when Ji Ah felt something soft hit her on the side of head. Her hand flew to the spot at once and her head instinctively snapped sideways. Young Do was staring straight ahead at the board with a small tight lipped smile and was tearing a piece of paper from his notebook. Ji Ah looked down to see a small crumpled piece of paper lying close to her chair.

Young Do crumpled the piece of paper in his hand and threw it at her without looking at her. Ji Ah flinched when it hit her on her forehead.

She scoffed at him before turning away.

Young Do continued to shower her with crumpled pieces of paper, rattling her desk in between, whenever their teacher turned his back to them, and Ji Ah continued to write in her notebook while also trying to maintain her patience.

A piece of paper hit her on the nose and another irritating earthquake shook her desk. She clenched her eyes shut in frustration, tightening her hold around her pen. She wanted to turn to him right now and yell at him that he was totally childish!

But Ji Ah pretended to be unconcerned. as she brushed some pieces of paper off her desk.

She sighed softly when the class finally came to an end, along with Young Do's paper showers and patience testing earthquakes.

Ji Ah pulled out her ink pot to refill ink in her pen before leaving. As Young Do made to move past her, he bumped into her desk.

Ji Ah sprang to her feet when the ink pot turned over, spilling ink over the desk and dribbling off it. She quickly picked up the ink pot, but the damage was already done. Her notebook and her skirt were now tainted with blue ink.

She gave him a hard glare, as Young Do turned around, and eyed her desk and her skirt with satisfaction.

Smiling derisively at her, he faked an apologetic look. "Sorry! I accidentally did it."

Ji Ah had had enough.

She heard shocked gasps from around them when she suddenly threw the leftover ink from the inkpot at Young Do. The smile wiped off his face in an instant. Ji Ah had intended to throw it at his face, but there was not much ink in the pot, so it landed on his neck and shirt.

"Sorry. I accidentally did it." Ji Ah said.

Young Do gave her a deadpan look for a few tense moments, then he bent his head, but when he raised his head again, an amused chuckle escaped his throat, as an unnerving smile had broken across his mouth.

Ji Ah felt her resolve waver because it reminded her of the day he had made Joon Young kneel. However, Young Do didn't do anything. He just turned away from her and walked out of the class with his shoulders pushed back and chest out, as though there was no ink covering his neck or shirt.

Everyone was giving her crazy looks, so she quickly gathered her stuff, jerked the ink soaked notebook to get rid of the excessive ink, and hurried out of the classroom.

By lunch, the news had travelled around the school that Ji Ah had thrown ink at Young Do. Ji Ah heard murmurs, barely concealed scornful laughs, and even received some sympathetic looks as she timidly walked to her locker.

She shouldn't have thrown ink at him, she thought glumly as she opened her locker. She wondered if he could file lawsuit against her for throwing ink at him?

Ji Ah checked her cell phone to see Mr Seo's missed calls. She moved to an empty balcony and dialed Mr Seo's number. She wondered if she should have called Ahn Dan Te instead because Mr Seo could be in a meeting, but he picked up.

"Yeoboseyo." Ji Ah said politely.

"Are you at school?"

"Ye."

"I don't have much work today. If you want to learn piano, today is the day."

Ji Ah's heart skipped a beat. She licked her lips and began picking at her thumbnail cuticles with her fingernails. "I am not sure..."

"Araso. If you feel like it, come to the office. My secretary at the reception will let you in if you say your name." He said.

"Ye. Thank you, Ahjussi." She said meekly.

"And when should I get your next appointment with your therapist." He asked.

Ji Ah grimaced. "I don't want to go to him again." She said reluctantly.

"Why?"

Ji Ah moved to the railing and placed a hand on it while her eyes darted around the street absentmindedly.

"It's not helping. Its just wasting money."

"Yes, its supposed to help in just two visits. " Mr Seo said dryly.

"I am taking medicine and that helps calm me down." She said, with an eager smile that he must have heard in her voice.

"Why are you afraid of therapy?"

"I am not afraid of it." She said in a defensive manner, then faltered. "It's just he says I have many mental issues."

"What's wrong with that?" Mr Seo scoffed on the other side.

Ji Ah looked down at her shoes while still holding the railing.

"It is only natural to develop mental issues after going through something like that. It does not mean that you are crazy. Everyone has at least one mental problem, but they never see a therapist, so they never get to find out they have it."

Ji Ah turned around and leaned against the railing, staring straight at the empty school grounds.

"Anxiety, OCD, dermitallomania or phobias or nightmares doesn't mean you are crazy. You can just get rid of these problems with your therapist's help."

Ji Ah frowned deeply. "I don't want to do anything about my phobia or OCD or dermatilmania. I am okay with them."

"_Dermitallomania._" Mr Seo corrected her. "And no, you are not okay with them." He said sternly. "But if you don't want to do anything about them _for now_, then it is okay. But you _need_ to work on your nightmares. Your doctor also said it's necessary or they would effect ypur heart and weaken it."

Ji Ah tensed. _Her heart. _

"I understand." She mumbled in a defeated tone.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Ji Ah stopped in the middle of the huge hall of FW's shinning office building. Looking down, she could see a faint shadow of her form on the floor. Women in pencil skirts and men in crisp three piece suits bustled around her. She felt conflicted within herself, as she reconsidered moving forward. _I can make piano a distraction. _She thought, feeling as though she were trying to deceive herself.

Eventually, she clutched the strap of her hangbag and moved forward. It was more out of the feeling that every passerby was watching her, than a firm decision on her part. Ji Ah wondered if the receptionist merely knew her name or also knew that she was Mr Seo's niece?

The receptionist, a young pretty lady with her hair twisted in a bun at the nap of her neck, asked her name in an all business tone. They had a different receptionist the last time she was here, Ji Ah recalled as she told her name.

The bored receptionist perked up and told Ji Ah that she could go in. Ji Ah nodded politely and felt the receptionists eyes on her when she walked away.

If Mr Seo was glad to see her, he didn't show it. Arranged gracefully on his office chair, he was doing something on his laptop when Ji Ah entered. Without taking his eyes off the screen, he told her to sit and wait for a few minutes.

Ji Ah's first ever piano lesson started exactly 15 minutes later. How she could have imagined that someone like him would be teaching her piano someday? But then life had gone in many expected ways.

Mr Seo began with providing her with all the information about piano that she didn't know. He proceeded to demonstrate notes to her, of the same song Ji Ah had played the last time she was here, something by Chopin; she didn't remember the name. Then it was her turn to practice.

"Practicing is what will help you more than me." He told her.

He was patient with her, as he guided her fingers across the black and white keyboard, instructed her on peddling, and corrected her finger movements and song notes.

The lesson continued for an hour, then they settled themselves on the plush sofas in, what Ji Ah called, Mr Seo's small living room.

Mr Seo insisted that she have lunch with him, now that she was here. Ji Ah had always received from him. She had nothing to give back, except lamely uttered 'thank yous', anyway. And now she was also receiving piano lessons from him.. Not to forget the freezer full of meat and seafood at her apartment. And the weekly check ups with an expensive doctor --combined with a psychiatrist now.

Ji Ah felt herself grow smaller and smaller in front of him.

They food arrived and Ji Ah poured herself a small portion of rice and fried fish. They ate quietly till Mr Seo spoke.

"Do you know what is the meaning of this song?" He asked her, grabbing his wine glass.

She swallowed a mouthful and answered. "Aniyo."

"It is a song Chopin wrote in a despairing condition, at an asylum. The rising and falling movement in the beginning, does it remind you of something?" He looked at her expectantly.

Ji Ah furrowed her brows and began carefully. "I think it... sounds like _breathing. _

A slight smile of appreciation quirked the corners of his lips up. "As if someone is stuggling to breath!" Mr Seo completed.

Ji Ah couldn't help feeling pleased with herself. "Ye..." She smiled grimly and nodded, while placing a ball of rice in her mouth with the chopsticks.

"This song is called suffocation by some, because it sounds like someone is struggling to breath." He elaborated. "The ending notes also sound like someone is taking their last breaths."

Ji Ah frowned, immediately reminded of her mother taking her last breaths lying at a hospital bed, and Cha Ji Ah and her old driver, stuck in a car being mulled over by a mad truck.

"I felt that it was a sad song." She mumbled, feeling gloomy suddenly.

Mr Seo, didn't notice, however. "It is a sad song." He agreed, pouring himself more rice.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Young Do laid straight in a sofa in Myung So's studio, with an arm folded under his head and the other resting by his side. He stared straight at the ceiling, as he remembered Ji Ah looking at him fearfully, when he had a small scuffle with Joon Young in front of the lockers. Her wide round eyes gave her an innocent.

She had looked similar when he had held her arm while asking for her number. She had tried to appear brave, yet she looked obviously afraid. He felt an odd sort of joy in recalling every memory and image.

He thought about when she had tried to pull out the notebook from his hands, she had pouted at him, while a few dark strands hung in her face. An image of the day he had first seen her sleeping on the table outside the store, flashed before his eyes. Her soft looking pinkish lips were formed into a cute pout.

He caressed his fingers together innately, when he recalled brushing her hair out of her face and the tips of his fingers had brushed against her skin, for a very short moment. He wondered how it would feel like to caress her cheek with his knuckles while she would flutter her lashes at him innocently.

And the thought surprised him. Only for a moment though, because deep down he knew where that thought originated from, he just didn't want to openly confront that origin.

"What are you doing?" Myung So, who had been dancing girlishly, stopped upon noticing Young Do smiling at the ceiling. "What are you thinking about?"

Young Do's gaze didn't waver from the ceiling, nor the small smile on his lips."I am thinking about Cha Ji Ah."

"Why are you thinking about Cha Ji Ah?" Myung So asked suspiciously.

The smile wavered now. "Exactly." He said hazily. "Why am I thinking about Cha Ji Ah?"

"Is it about today's ink incident?" Myung So asked.

"Ani." Young Do said shortly.

"Then why are you thinking about her?" Myung So asked in confusion, pouting like a child.

Young Do didn't reply.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

**Thank you Iwoody1 for following the story.**

**_~Fawns_**


	17. Chapter 17: Because You Cried

**_•I dont own the Heirs._**

**_• English isnt my first language. _**

**Because You Cried**

He didn't see the wary look Myung So threw his way, as he sat up and grabbed his cell phone off the table in front of him.

Myung So went to change the song while Young Do tapped open Ji Ah's inbox on his phone.

**_"Ya! Where are you?" _**He sent, then waited a few seconds before sending more messages.

**_"I know you don't have work at this hour. What are you doing?"_**

Young Do leaned back in the sofa, but kept the cell phone in hand.

"Change the song, Myung So-ya." He grumbled.

"Why? What is wrong with this song?" Myung So said, sounding offended.

"Its girlish!"

"I am girlish too. Will you change me too?" Myung So pouted. Young Do gave Myung So an unimpressed look, before going back to his cell phone. Myung So also moved to change the song again.

**_"Don't ignore me or I will show up at your workplace."_**

**_"Chaaaaa Jiiiiii Ahhhhhh."_**

**_"Reply." _**

**_"Reply."_**

**_"Reply."_**

Young Do placed his phone heavily on the table, and Myung So looked back at him.

Ji Ah frowned at her phone screen, as she walked to her apartment.

**_"Reply." _**A message popped on the screen.

Then another message popped. **_"WHERE ARE YOU?"_**

Then another. **_"WHERE ARE YOU CHA JI AHHHHH???"_**

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Ji Ah scowled at his messages. What was this creature's problem?

She turned off the screen, but it started ringing as soon as she did. She stopped walking and declined his call impulsively, then smacked her palm on her forehead in frustration. Now, he would know she was deliberately ignoring him!

She sighed and resumed walking.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Ji Ah naturally woke up in a bad mood, feeling especially glum, today. The thought of getting out of bed, or going to school, or seeing Choi Young Do, agitated her even more. If it had not been an expensive school --especially the one whose fees' were being paid by Mr Seo-- she would have skipped school today.

She half heartedly got out of bed, showered, ate breakfast, and dressed up for the school.

Walking everywhere had now become natural for her. She didn't need to travel in vehicles since she never travelled far, and it wasn't like she were going to keep travelling in some car all day, if she got over her phobia too, she thought with satisfaction as she walked to the school.

Ji Ah was a bit late than usual, noticing full hallways. She took off her backpack, as she opened her locker, and was about to lay it in her locker nonchalantly when she noticed it.

The walls of her locker were covered in something dark.

And the floor--

Ji Ah dropped her backpack with a small gasp upon remembering her gym suit. She zipped open her gym suit's bag immediately, and tugged it out.

It was covered completely in ink too.

Ji Ah slumped her shoulders. The ink had not dried yet as it tainted Ji Ah's fingers too. Young Do had done it probably this morning, before she got here.

"Good morning!" Young Do chirped from behind her locker door. Ji Ah threw her gym suit back in the locker, and closed it.

"It is such a beautiful day, today!" Young Do clapped his hands together, and smiled devilishly at her.

Ji Ah pouted sourly at him in response, but decided to keep her mouth shut. She picked up her backpack, and started towards her classroom, while trying to comfort herself with the thought that at least he didn't make her kneel.

Young Do followed her, falling in step beside her. "When someone greets you, you are supposed to return the greeting." He mocked.

Ji Ah refused to acknowledge his existence, and stared straight ahead, mentally calculating the amount of money it would cost to dry clean her gym suit. Or chances were she would have to buy another, she thought miserably. She didn't want to ask Mr Seo for money.

"I went through the trouble of taking revenge, at least give me a proper reaction." Young Do grumbled beside her.

Ji Ah stayed indifferent. She saw him glancing at her from her side vision, likely irritated by her lack of reaction.

He suddenly snatched her backpack from her hand.

"Ya!" Ji Ah cried and stopped abruptly. "What are you doing?"

"I am carrying your bag for you, today." He smirked at her.

Ji Ah scoffed. "There is no need for it, please give me my bag back."

Young Do shrugged his shoulders, and held out her bag to her. "Araso, take it."

Ji Ah extended her hands for it, but he pulled it away with a smirk. He was toying with her.

"Don't play with me." She said weakly, her arms falling back to her sides. She really didn't have the strength for this today.

Ji Ah vaguely felt that something shifted in Young Do's expressions, but in that moment Kim Tan grabbed her bag from Young Do's hands roughly.

"Are you in elementary school? Why are you going around snatching girls' things?" Kim Tan scolded Young Do like one scolds a little child.

Ji Ah felt a faint burning sensation in her cheeks, as she remembered how he had held her a few days back. He had been avoiding her since then, just as much as she had been avoiding him. Though she told herself they had hugged tightly once before too, there was nothing to feel embarrassed about.

Young Do arched his eyebrows in annoyance. "I was wondering where her knight in shining armour had been lately." He drawled sarcastically.

Kim Tan turned to Ji Ah. "Why are you carrying your bag with you? Why isn't it in your locker?"

Ji Ah gave Young Do a sidelong glance. "My locker is covered with ink." She said quietly.

Kim Tan understood her at once, because he fixed Young Do with an icy look, who in turn smiled derisively at him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Young Do said, feigning innocence.

At this moment, the bell rang and everyone started rushing to the classes. Kim Tan threw her bag at her, and Ji Ah caught it with a tiny gasp.

"Get the things you need for class" He said. "Then you can keep your bag in my locker till yours is cleaned."

Ji Ah was positively taken aback by the offer. Why was he like that to her? He had even grabbed Young Do's collar for her, on her first day here. She felt a strange uneasiness.

"Why would you keep a girl's bag in _your_ locker?" Young Do curled his lip at Kim Tan. "A girl who isn't your _fiancee._"

"Why would you throw ink at a girl and ruin her locker? Kim tan shoot back. "A girl who isn't supposed to be your enemy."

Young Do arched a brow and sneered.

Kim Tan grabbed Ji Ah's wrist. "Let's go." He said, dragging her with him towards his locker, leaving a grumpy Young Do behind.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Ji Ah silently pulled out her new notebook, her textbook and a pen, before Kim Tan kept her bag in his locker, and shut it close. Ji Ah was glad there was barely anyone in the hallway to see that.

"Thank you." She muttered, her gaze directed downward.

"Why are you like that?" Kim Tan suddenly asked her what she had wanted to ask him.

"What?"Ji Ah raised her gaze.

Kim Tan looked away as though suppressing his anger.

"Nothing." He said, tucking his hands in his trouser's pockets, and walking off to the class.

Ji Ah pushed back her dark strands, and squinted at his back in bafflement. What did he mean?

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Classes passed uneventfully. Young Do didn't bother her during or after the classes, nor did Kim tan approached her again. However, Ji Ah still wandered about, feeling gloomy. And it was also this gloominess that led her to the music room.

She hesitated for a moment before entering it. It was empty.

Ji Ah moved to the piano, and deliberately brushed her fingers on its keys. Glancing cautiously at the closed door once, she seated herself in front of the piano, and took a deep breath before beginning to play.

That song by Chopin. That was the only one she wanted to play and hear right now, despite how depressed it made her feel. She wasn't playing for comforting herself, but rather for tormenting herself more. She wanted to cry out her heart somehow.

Her heart grew heavy with every note, and tears trickled down her cheeks, as the music room echoed with the deep sadness of music --or was it her own pain?

Ji Ah couldn't bring herself to play the last part, where it sounded like someone was taking their last breath. She stopped and sniffled.

Her head snapped sideways when she heard someone else's sniffle too.

A tear slipped from Kim Tan's eye, and rolled down his cheek. His eyes were glistening with tears, and his mouth was quivering.

"Why did you have to play that?" He asked in a voice, that sounded so broken that Ji Ah felt more tears roll down her own cheeks.

She stood up slowly. "I am sorry." She said in an awfully trembling voice.

Kim Tan looked away from her, and placed the back of his hand on his mouth, his chest shaking faintly with suppressed sobs.

Ji Ah couldn't prevent herself from moving closer to him.

"That was her favourite song" Kim Tan croaked, still looking away from her.

"I.. I am sorry." Ji Ah sputtered, apologising again.

Kim Tan turned back to her, and the look in his eyes, as tears swiftly rolled down his cheeks, broke Ji Ah's heart even more. She stepped closer, her hand involuntarily flying up and she carefully wiped away his tears with her two fingers.

Kim Tan went rigid while any remaining color drained out of his face.

He stared unblinkingly at her. Ji Ah quickly withdrew her hand, and backed away upon realising what she had done.

"I.. I am..s-sorry." She stammered out, looking down.

Kim Tan swallowed the hard lump in his throat, feeling another chill travel down his spine. It was scary the way she remimded him of his Cha Ji Ah. She was nothing like the bold, sarcastic and confident Cha Ji Ah, who had always kept her head held high and never hunched her shoulders in fear-- at least not in front of him.

Hae Na Ri was a completely opposite version of Cha Ji Ah; timid at times, slightly awkward and somewhat innocent. She looked like Cha Ji Ah, but Cha Ji Ah never looked this fragile-- or sad. Her eyes were a different story; Cha Ji Ah didn't have this dull and sad eyes.

Inspite of the many obvious differences between the two, Hae Na Ri still managed to shake him with words or actions that were eerily like Cha Ji Ah.

No matter, how much he berated himself, he couldn't help, but feel drawn to Hae Na Ri. He had to remind himself again that she wasn't Cha Ji Ah, although the thought did him no comfort either.

"It is a funny coincidence." Kim Tan smiled mirthlessly, wiping at his eyes and cheeks.

Jin Ah bit her quivering bottom lip, and looked at him tearfully. "I am sorry." She brushed away a strand from her face.

"Stop apologising." Kim Tan's eyes darted around the room, avoiding her.

Ji Ah was about to apologise for apologising, but stopped upon realising the absurdity.

"I wouldn't play it again." She blurted out, as though trying to comfort him.

He sniffed, and looked at her. "Why were you crying?"

"I was just feeling sad."

There was an uncomfortable silence in the music room, as Kim Tan didn't say anything for a few moments.

"Why did you cry that day?" He asked abruptly.

Ji Ah looked up, not catching on for a moment, then realised he was talking about the day he had hugged her. She swallowed hard and started picking on her thumbnail wih her fingernails.

Her voice trembled when she spoke. "Because you cried."

She shouldn't have said it, she regretted it at once.

Though she couldn't read Kim Tan's expressions. He was staring intently at her, perhaps waiting for her to elaborate, but Ji Ah had nothing more to say. She stared back, feeling her heart palpitating. The intensity of his gaze grew too much for her, and she looked away.

"I think our math class is about to start soon." She said without looking at him. Kim Tan didn't say anything, so Ji Ah took this chance, and wiped at her face to clear any traces of tears, before shuffling past him, towards the door.

She thrusted her hands into her blazer pockets when she stepped out and walked hurriedly.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Ji Ah slumped on the table outside the convenience store. She had given her gym suit for dry cleaning, and it had cost 18,000 won; her entire savings.

She hated Choi Young Do, she hated herself... and she hated Kim Tan.

Ji Ah tossed her head back, and stared at the dark desolated sky. On days like this, she felt more lonely; when she didn't have anyone at the end of the day, to talk to her, or just care that she was upset.

Ji Ah glanced inside the store and bit her bottom lip.

She pushed open the store door, and made her way towards the refrigerator. Drinking something cold was half a suicide for her, figuratively speaking, though that didn't stop her. She bought 2 beer cans.

While popping open a chilled can, she regretted not bringing her gloves along. Chills wents down her spine and goosebumps rose on her skin, as the first gulp of the cold beer travelled down her throat.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

**_Thank you so much Sazifer for reviewing. It made me really happy to see a review. I will upload next chapter soon too._**

**_~_Fawns**


	18. Chapter 18: When You Are A Bad Guy

**_•English isn't my first language, nor is korean._**

**_•I dont own the Heirs._**

**When You Are A Bad Guy**

"Stop the car here." Young Do grumbled at the driver, as they neared the convenience store. The driver did as told.

"You can go home." Young Do said dismissively, while stepping out of the car and straightening his jacket.

The _family _dinners with Rachel and her mother were getting on his nerves now. He pushed open the door of the convenience store, with a bit more force than required.

His anger evaporated when he caught sight of familiar looking dark, long and somewhat wavy hair.

She was standing at the cashier counter with her back to him, yet he knew it was Cha Ji Ah.

She turned around with a beer can in her hand, and moved towards him. He remained at the threshold of the store, ready to flash her a charming smile, and ask her if she were stalking him --despite the fact that he had been the one to come later-- but she didn't look at his face.

She bumped into his chest. Then stepped back clumsily to widen her eyes at him, as if surpised that he were not the door she had tried to pass through.

He lifted a brow at her in suspicion.

She scowled at him suddenly. "You w-e-ir-do! Why are you here again?"

Young Do's eyebrows shoot up. She stepped forward, and tried to push him aside weakly. He moved to give her way, but followed after her when she left the store. She trudged to the table outside the store, but didn't sit down. She opened the can of beer and took a sip.

"How many cans did you have?" Young Do asked with a frown.

She ignored him, and took another sip of the beer, and shuddered visibly. She was not wearing a high neck sweater that he was used to seeing on her.

Young Do stepped closer, and snatched the can from her hand.

"Ya!" She cried and lunged at him, but stumbled halfway. Young Do grabbed her arm to steady her, though she had already grabbed a chair.

She jerked out her arm from his grip. "Give me my beer back, you weirdo!"

"What?" Young Do felt a tinge of annoyance. She had called him weirdo earlier too. "Really?" He scoffed. "I am not a weirdo, I am just a nice guy trying to help a drunk girl. How did you managed to get this drunk on beer, anyway?"

"Liar. You are a bad guy." She gave him a sullen pout, and thrust her chin up, more childishly than Myung So.

Young Do gave a fake smile. "You are breaking my heart now, Cha Ji Ah."

At that moment Ji Ah lunged for her beer can again, but Young Do raised it high.

"Give it back." She whined.

Young Do brought the beer can to his lips, and began gulping it down.

"Ya! What are you doing?" Ji Ah tried to pull at his hand holding the can, but he turned away from her. She whimpered, and started pulling at his jacket instead.

Young Do finished the whole can, and grunted in satisfication, though his chest felt frozen due to the chilled beer. He handed the empty can back to Ji Ah.

She looked crestfallen, as she looked down at it sadly.

"Jerk!" She mumbled, throwing away the empty can, and when she looked up at him, he saw tears shimmering in her big round eyes. Young Do was taken aback.

She thrust her hands into the pockets of her white button up coat, before turning away from him.

He wasn't sure why, but he followed her.

"I will buy you more beer tomorrow if you want." Young Do grinned at her upon reaching her side.

"Go to hell." She sniffed, and stumbled sideways. Young Do grabbed her elbow again. She weakly pulled it out of his grasp, and he let her.

What was wrong with her? Why did she drink so much beer? He wondered with an uneasiness if it were because of the ink incident? She had appeared upset throughout the day at school, too.

She suddenly stopped, and glanced around with glossy eyes, as though in an unfamiliar place.

"Where do you live?" He asked her.

Ji Ah didn't answer, or even acknowledge him. She pulled out her hands, and placed them on her cheeks. "I feel hot." She pouted at the street.

Young Do felt a fluttering in his chest.

"Are you trying to seduce me?" He muttered huskily after a moment.

She ignored him again, and went back to walking. Young Do bit his bottom lip, watching her trudging ahead of him while he remained at his spot.

She stopped walking once again, and furrowed her brows at the sky for a few moments, before Young Do saw a tear slide down her flushed cheek in the pale streetlight.

"What is it with you?" He finally asked. What the hell was wrong with her?

"Its beautiful." She said quietly.

Young Do also looked at the sky, and decided to agree with her. "Eo, it is." He said. "But are you jealous of its beauty? Why is it making you cry?"

She looked at him this time, and something about her tearful gaze disconcerted him. "Because it's also sad.."

Also?

Young Do felt as if she were talking about herself and not the sky.

"Stop it. And go home." He told her, feeling really annoyed now. She looked at him as though he had said something extremely painful.

She moved toward him with an unreadable expression and tear stained cheeks. Young Do tensed when she came to stand right in front of him, closer than necessary, with her round watery eyes fixed on his face. He looked down at her, feeling uneasy and bewildered.

Then she did something totally unexpected.

She took one more step closer and placed her head tenderly on his chest.

Young Do's breath hitched in his throat, and his pulse began racing.

"Why is it so peaceful here, when you are a bad guy?" She mumbled.

He felt a chill roll down his spine, as his heart fluttered again. His lips were parted and he felt a shaking inside hinself, while looking down at her fragile form, resting against him, with such warmth that was reaching inside his chest. He could feel her breathing softly against his chest.

Young Do clenched and unclenched his hands. He swallowed dryly and raised a tentative hand to brush her dark hair out of her face. Tilting his head, he looked down at her.

Her eyes were closed. Her wet lashes rested on her equally wet cheeks. Young Do's hand paused close to her cheek, hesitating momentarily, before he gave in to the temptation and caressed her soft cheek gently with his knuckles.

She shivered noticeably, and Young Do felt something stir inside him.

He withdrew his hand, suddenly afraid of his own emotions. He clenched his hands into fists by his side, while trying to calm whatever had kindled inside him.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

'Ahjussi 1'.

'Ahjussi 2'.

'Choi Young Do.'

'The manager'.

'Woo Mi'.

Young Do held Ji Ah's cell phone in one hand and scrolled through her short contact list, while his other arm was wrapped gently around her, as she slumbered peacefully on his chest. There were no 'Eomma' or 'Appa' in her contact list, and he wondered if she didn't have parents, or she were simply not in contact with them.

There was no Kim Tan either, he realised gleefully.

Young Do decided to dial the most recent contact in her cellphone, which was 'Ahjussi 2'.

Someone picked up.

"Yeoboseyo." Young Do said.

"Who?" A man grunted.

"Who are you to Cha Ji Ah?"

"Who are _you?_"

Young Do explained the situation, briefly. _Ahjussi 2_ sounded irritated while he told Young Do that he would be there to pick up Cha Ji Ah, before he disconnected the call rudely. Young Do scowled at the cellphone.

Ji Ah shuddered on his chest and Young Do wrapped his jacket around her, holding her tightly to him. His pulse began racing again and he tightened his jaw. _Get a grip on yourself Choi Young Do. _

He involuntarily breathed in the faint sweet scent coming from her hair. There was no one else in the street right now, as they stood with Ji Ah buried in his chest, hidden under his black leather jacket. Why would she even get drunk at this time, around here? Young Do mused to himself angrily, while waiting for this 'Ahjussi 2'.

He was surpised when this 'Ahjussi 2' came in a shinning black car to pick up Ji Ah. He was even more surprised to see 'Ahjussi 2'. It took him a moment, but Young Do recognized him. Young Do didn't know his name, but he had seen this man with Seo Nam Gil, a rich conglomerate who owned some shares in Zeus Group.

"I am Ahn Dan Te, her Samchon's secretary. He couldn't come right now, so I came in his place." He explained quickly, looking just as irritated as he had sounded on the phone.

Her Samchon's secretary, did he mean Seo Nam Gil's secretary? Young Do thought in confusion.

He reluctantly carried Ji Ah to the car --refusing to let this secretary guy carry her-- and laid her gently in the backseat.

The secretary guy thanked him briefly, before climbing into the car as well.

Young Do watched their car speed away and placed a palm on his chest where Ji Ah had rested her head.

It was still warm.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Young Do rubbed a towel on his wet hair, while his mind was elsewhere. Grunting, he laid down heavily on his bed, and pulled the thick brown blanket over himself. When he closed his eyes, her glimmering round eyes under the streetlight, appeared before him. Dull and painfully sad.

He opened his eyes, and placed a palm on his chest. There was an odd ache somewhere in there.

Water droplets dribbled down his neck, but he didn't notice.

_Why is it so peaceful here, when you are a bad guy?_

"Aish!" He turned over, and placed an arm under his pillow, fidgeting to adjust himself more comfortably.

Sleeping was going to prove hard, tonight, he thought fleetingly. He wondered if she were sleeping just as peacefully in her bed as she had slept on his chest?

One more thing agitated him, as Young Do tossed and turned in his bed, trying to find sleep through his jumbled and excited nerves.

Who was Cha Ji Ah?

The first thing he had done after coming back to the hotel was to look up Seo Nam Gil and his family members. He found an old article about Seo Nam Gil's older sister: Seo Soon Jong. She had left South Korea long ago to marry some man, but to where? No one knew.

That was all on the internet.

He didn't find anything else other than that, as if someone had purposely removed the articles, because media would never leave anyone as affluent as Seo family alone.

Then Cha Ji Ah was this Seo Soon Jong's daughter?

But then why didn't it hit news when she came to Seoul with her parents? And why was she working parttime jobs if she were Seo Hyun Ju and Seo Dae Hee's granddaughter?

Maybe they didn't accept her as their granddaughter. That was possible.

Young Do's mind pondered over questions and possibilities, keeping him awake till nearly midnight. He made a mental note to get _proper_ information about Cha Ji Ah, tomorrow.

She had just gotten more mysterious.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

**This chaper is my favourite!**

**_~Fawns~_**


	19. Chapter 19: Stay, Don't Leave This Soon

**_•I don't own the Heirs._**

**_•I have replied to reviews at the end_**, **_including guest reviews. _*****heart heart***

**Stay, Don't Leave This Soon**

Ji Ah screamed.

A thudding noise came from upstairs that sounded like someone just fell out of their bed.

But Ji Ah didn't care. She grabbed her pillow, placed it to the back of her head and screamed again into her blanket.

Why would she run into _him__?_ Why?! Out of _so_ many people in the world, why him?

"Aish!" She banged her hands on the bed wildly, and when that didn't console her either, she proceeded to throw her pillow at her bathroom's closed door.

Shs inhaled a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. She did it once more.

"Nothing happened." She said out loud.

"I didn't do anything stupid, pathetic, or embarrassing." She said again, seemingly to her blanket, while trying to block the memory of her placing her head on that jerk's chest.

Then she screamed again.

She jumped when someone banged on her door. "Why the hell are you screaming so loud this early in the morning?!" Her landlady shouted through the door. "Your screaming at midnight is enough of a fright for my weak old heart!"

_I scream during nightmares?_ Ji Ah's brows furrowed into a frown.

"I am sorry!" Ji Ah shouted back.

The landlady grumbled something incoherent behind the door, before shuffling away.

Ji Ah fell back in her bed miserably and began whimpering.

After some more moments of lamenting, she looked for her cellphone, and found it in her coat's pocket, on the table.

Mr Seo's message.

**_"Be at my house after school." _**

From his brief message, Ji Ah sensed that he was very angry. She felt her heart sink.

She recalled waking up in the car with Ahn Dan Te, then him carrying her to her bed last night. Ji Ah cringed, and grabbed her hair at the scalp, resisting pulling them out.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Ji Ah came to the school, determined to be indifferent about what happened last night, but she was surpised when Young Do ignored her the whole day.

Kim Tan didn't though; she often sensed him glancing at her in classes or in hallways. Thus, she retired to the library as soon as lectures ended.

Even after the classes ended for the day, Ji Ah stayed in the library to study --which she really wasn't doing.

Ji Ah had never actually seen Mr Seo angry, and now when she had to, she was dreading the meeting. Angry men always scared her.

Her cellphone vibrated on the table, and Ji Ah frowned at Choi Young Do's name on the screen. He was all good the whole day, why would he call now?

"_Yeoboseyo._" Young Do drawled with aeygyo.

"What?" Ji Ah asked rudely, then faltered when she recieved some looks from around. She began gathering her stuff to leave the library.

"What is this?" Young Do mocked. "You were so sweet, last night."

Ji Ah grimaced, as she paused.

"Why did you call?" She asked coldly.

"I am stuck in a [terrible] dilemma." He didn't sound like it. "I ordered black bean noodles and they accidentally delivered two servings."

"So?" She asked uncertainly, standing up from her spot with her bag in one hand, to start out of the library.

"Come, eat with me."

Ji Ah stopped, frowning. What was this guy? She couldn't understand him at all. "You have gone crazy?" She asked.

"You know Zeus Hotel. It's my second home because my Abeoji owns it. I will be waiting in Yeojingu branch, room no. 17."

Ji Ah removed the phone from her ear and stared at it in disbelief. Did he actually think she would go to his _hotel room_ to eat with him? Just because he was rich? The idea of just eating with him was disturbing enough.

It almost hurt.

"Go to hell. I will not come." Ji Ah muttered, venom dripping from each syllable, and hurried out of the library because the librarian was shooting daggers at her.

Young Do chuckled devilishly. "You will have to." He said. "Moon Joon Young will be there soon. I told him if he can make you come to the hotel, then I would take back the lawsuit."

Ji Ah halted in the hall. How could he do that? It felt like he was playing with them.

"Do you know are a total jerk?" She scowled.

Young Do laughed shamelessly on the other side. Joon Young entered the hall at that moment and their eyes met. Ji Ah ended the call instantly.

Death was written all over Joon Young's face. She looked away, feeling indignant. She didn't want to go there.

"I am sorry." Joon Young croaked. "I am really sorry."

Ji Ah looked back at him, and the helpless look into his eyes melted her.

She sighed.

"Araso, I will go there." She said bitterly. "But keep in mind that, that jerk isn't going to take back the lawsuit. He is just playing with us."

As she walked to the Zeus Hotel, Ji Ah told herself this was the last time she was doing something like this to help someone.

Zeus Hotel was a bit far from the school and her legs were aching by the time she arrived there. She jabbed a slender finger at the bell beside the room no.17's door. It opened almost instantly, as if he had been waiting eagerly for her.

He looked smug, as he grinned down at her. "What took you so long? Noodles are all soggy, now."

Ji Ah gave him a coldlook. "I don't mind going back."

"Ani, come in." With an amused smile, he stepped aside to give her way.

Ji Ah walked in stiffly.

Ji Ah was not surpised in the least at thr amplness of the lush room. Her eyes quickly skimmed over the room with little interest, before settling on the two bowls of noodles placed on a table, in the middle of two chairs.

Young Do took a seat on one, and gestured for her to sit across from him. Ji Ah felt somewhat abashed, as she took off her bag and sat down on the chair. Once again, she had ended up at a place she didn't want to be.

He picked up his chopsticks, and began eating the noodles. Ji Ah scorned at him silently: he was so carefree and unperturbed.

Young Do looked at her after a few moments. "They are not that soggy." He joked, motioning towards her noodle bowl.

"I am not hungry."

Young Do leaned back in his seat, leaving his chopsticks in the bowl, and wiped at his mouth with a few napkins.

"Then when will you be hungry?" He smiled flirtatiously. "We can have noodles then."

It irked her everytime he spoke like that.

"Why are you doing this?"

"What?" Young Do arched his eyebrows.

"You will not take back the lawsuit, then why are you playing with us?" She said calmly, inspite of the resentment she felt. Ji Ah saw him turning annoyed at her words.

"Who said I will not?" He asked.

Ji Ah frowned, floundering for a moment. "Then you will take back the lawsuit?"

"Eo." He tilted his head and lifted a brow.

"Why?" It didn't make sense.

"Because you came." Young Do replied smoothly.

Ji Ah shut her mouth, suddenly feeling uneasy.

"You are weird." She stated stiffly, just because she wanted to escape the uneasiness. He was trying to play games with her, but she was not going to fall for them.

Young Do looked amused at her remark.

"You called me a weirdo last night too." He reminded her.

Ji Ah fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat. "I didn't say anything wrong." She tried to sound confident, but ended up sounding desperate.

"Aishh, you are hurting my heart." He scoffed, though his eyes were twinkling with mischieve.

"Why did you call me here?"

"To have noodles with you." He said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, as he grabbed his chopsticks again. "You remember, you said we will eat noodles sometime together."

Ji Ah grimaced. Why was he reminding her about all the embarassing things?

"Choi Young Do!" She said, exasperated. She was tired, and she had to walk to Mr Seo's house too after this. She didn't have strength for this.

Young Do looked up from his noodle bowl, and dropped his chopsticks again. His face turned stony.

"Araso," He said, irritation slipping into his tone. "Kim Tan and you, did you two have something in America?"

Ji Ah opened and closed her mouth, apparently taken aback.

"This is what it was all about?" She asked. "You know you are really childish!"

"Do you want to see me turn manly?" He said huskily, a disconcerting stroke to his voice, that frightened Ji Ah at once, causing her heart to flail in her chest.

She clenched her hands, while still trying to keep her composure.

"If you have a problem with Kim Tan, then go fight with him. Why are you dragging me into this?" She said and stood up, grabbing her bag. "I am going now."

She had barely taken a few steps away from him, when his deep voice startled her. "Do your grandparents still not accept your parents marriage?"

Ji Ah stopped dead.

She slowly turned around to fix him with a blank look. He was leaning back in his seat, his arms crossed across his broad chest arrogantly, with a sly arched brow and a slight tight lipped smile.

How would he know? She thought with growing horror. Did Ahn Dan Te tell him something?

"Are you here alone to win your grandparents' hearts?" He looked immensely smug, as he spoke. "That must be why you don't have your parents' cellphone number in your contact list."

Ji Ah blinked at him, confused momentarily. He seemed to have wrong information. Relief flooded inside her instantly, calming her ruffled heart. It seemed like he was just trying to make her stop from going What a scumbag!

She swallowed before speaking. "My family life is none of you business."

He scoffed at her, as he unfolded his arms and moved around the table to step closer to her. Ji Ah resisted the urge to step back.

"_It is._ You have lied to everyone." He tucked his hands into his trousers pockets arrogantly, standing in front of her. "First, you hid your social care status, then you hid your family background."

"What's your problem?" Ji Ah asked wildly, despite the fact that he was unnerving her with the way he towered over her.

"What's my problem?" He mocked. "I am just trying to bring out the truth."

She scowled at him.

"Do your grandparents not accept you as their granddaughter?" He furrowed his brows thoughtfully, then continued in a derisive tone, as Ji Ah pinned him with a death glare. "It didn't even hit the news when you came to Seoul. The only granddaughter of Seo Hyun Ju and Seo Dae Hee should have made it to the news quite easily, but no one even knows that a granddaughter even exists."

Ji Ah suddenly realised that this version of the story was just perfect. Even if he revealed it at school or anywhere, it was harmless to her. This was a satisfying enough story, and no one would question her about working parttime jobs or living in a small apartment, away from her _family._

Who could even imagine the real bizarre truth behind everything, anyway?

But she would rather that he wouldn't reveal it. It would undoubtedly create new problems and raise questions. She didn't want to trouble Mr Seo more, or increase Halmeonim or Halbeonim's hatred towards her.

"Leave me alone." She uttered, while neither denying anything, nor confirming.

Something changed in Young Do's gaze, as he took one more step closer.

"I don't want to."

Ji Ah's heart thumped uncomfortably, but she stayed still in her place.

He suddeny straightened his back, and clapped his hands together enthusiastically. "I wonder what media's reaction would be like, if they found out this crispy news. 'Seo family's only granddaughter working 5500 wons per hour jobs after having been disowned by her rich grandparents!'" He said as though reading a newspaper's headline.

Ji Ah was perturbed by his volatile behavior. His expressions and moods changed so abruptly and in such a baffling manner.

She also didn't like the sound of 'disowned granddaughter'. It may give make Young Do think she was all alone here.

She considered telling him that she worked parttime jobs because she wanted to learn what a poor person's life was like, just like Mr Seo had told her to. But it sounded absurd even to herself.

"It's 5200 won, not 5500 won." She corrected him. "Do whatever you want with this _crispy news. _I have to go somewhere."

Ji Ah thought she made it clear that she wouldn't be blackmailed by him in any way

He raised his eyebrows at her, as Ji Ah turned around and stalked to the door, while wriggling on her bag.

Young Do's smug voice followed her to the door. "To where? Work?"

Ji Ah paused in front of the closed door with her hand wrapped around the door knob. She realised he was trying to insult her. Wasn't reminding her that she worked 5200 wons an hour enough?

She twisted around and gave him a resolute, almost proud look. "Eo!"

His expressions wavered, but Ji Ah barely noticed. She had turned her back to him, to wrench open the door angrily.

There she received another shock.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**_Thank you so much everyone for all the reviews, favourites and follows. You people motivated me to write quickly._**

**_Sugarcupcake12: Sameee. I have also not gotten over Heirs. So here I am, writing a fanfiction._**

**_Bubble357_**: **_Thank you so much!_**

**_Guest: I post as soon as I have written a new chapters. Your reviews motivate me to do so._**

**_hellohello1: Thank you so much!_**

**_angel56337: I am so glad for that. I will try not to disappoint you in future either. *Heart heart*_**

**_Guest: That is wonderful! Let me give you a tip. Read as much English stories as you can. They will help you improve your english. Actually, that's how I learned English too. and if you have some questions about english, you can ask me. (and I am also learning Korean nowadays. On the basics currently. Its so fun.)_**

**_~Fawns_**


	20. Chapter 20: It Hurts More When

**_• I don't own Heirs._****_•Can anyone here make a cover for this story, please? I wanna upload it on wattpad too. Thank you!_**

**It Hurts More When I Don't See You**

Rachel stood outside, her hand hanging mid air to ring the bell, and her expressions mirroring Ji Ah's.

Ji Ah looked away in exasperation. Rachel was the last person, she had wanted to meet here like this.

Young Do came to stand beside her, also looking rather annoyed at Rachel's sight.

"What is this?" Rachel sneered at Young Do.

"You don't need to know." Young Do said tersely, tucking his hands in his pockets again.

Rachel chuckled in disbelief, before turning to Ji Ah and raking her up and down with a withering gaze. "You are even worse than I thought."

Ji Ah felt her face burn with humiliation and anger. Rachel walked off, but Ji Ah threw a wrathful look at Young Do. He had his lips pressed together.

She hurried out of the room, fuming internally.

She hated him!

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Ji Ah stood at a sidewalk outside the Zeus hotel, trying to prepare herself mentally to take a cab, but in vain. Eventually, she gave up and decided to walk some more today. Maybe, she could try taking a cab from Mr Seo's house to her apartment.

As she walked tiredly on the sidewalk, she came face to face with Kim Tan.

"Why were you in Choi Young Do's hotel room?"

Ji Ah's face burned with embarrassment again. That scumbag told Kim Tan!

"He said, he would take back the lawsuit against Moon Joon Young if I ate noodles with him."

Kim Tan gave a mirthless chuckle. "And you believed him?"

"I didn't." She frowned. "But I already have a lot to feel guilty about and I didn't want one more thing."

Kim Tan's features softened. He looked away from her for a moment, before his eyes flickered back to lock with hers.

"You don't need to feel guilty about anything... Nor do we need to avoid each other."

Ji Ah's frown deepened, because she disagreed with both things inwardly.

"In fact, _I_ don't want to avoid you." He said a bit loudly, standing up straighter and giving her a small friendly smile.

"Kim Tan." She said weakly, as if trying to stop him from doing something wrong.

"I don't want us to be awkward with each other." He continued, unfazed. "Or avoid each other."

"Doesn't it hurt to see me?" She blurted out the question, but regretted it instantly. "I am sorry!"

Kim Tan's gaze darkened. "Eo. It does." He spoke quietly after a moment, ignoring her apology. "But it hurts more when I don't see you."

Ji Ah's lips parted. She felt a pull at her heart. Now, she wanted to avoid him even more.

"So let's see each other outside school too. Let's eat together and talk about each other." He gave her a wry smile.

Ji Ah nervously hoped that he didn't mean what she thought he meant by seeing each other outside school too.

"Kim Tan--" She began cautiously, but he startled her, by taking off her hair clip abruptly.

"What are you doing?" She gasped, and brushed back the strands which had come loose upon escaping the clip.

"I don't like this hair clip." He squinted at her plain black clip, while a faint playful smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

Ji Ah furrowed her brows, widening her eyes at him in bewilderment. And she had called Choi Young Do volatile!

"I will get you a new one." He told her, slipping her hair clip into his jean's pocket

"A-ani!" She stammered, feeling flustered. "There is no need for that!"

"There is!" He insisted stubbornly, thrusting his hands into his pockets too. "I don't like this one."

"Kim Tan!"

"See you at school, then." He gave her a charming smile, before turning back in the direction he had come from.

She slumped her shoulders tiredly. Why everyone was hell bent on agitating her?

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Ji Ah ended up taking a cab.

She thought maybe this time it would be better, because she was travelling in a vehicle after a long time.

Nevertheless, she could still feel an anxiety attack --or was it a panic attack?-- building up. The space inside the car felt too crampedl, and her chest felt too empty.

Ji Ah placed a terribly shaking hand on her chest, as she sucked in breaths, but her lungs seemed to have stopped working. She was inhaling air, yet she couldn't breath.

_I can do it._ She told herself, but she couldn't do it.

Her eyes watered and she felt dizzy. Just then, some car beside them made a abrupt stop with a horrible screeching sound.

Ji Ah screamed, scaring the living delights out of the poor driver.

"Stop the car!" She panted at the him, tears leaking out of her eyes. He didn't need to be told, for he had already slowed down.

Ji Ah threw open the door and scrambled out. Everything swayed and she fell. It was even worse now.

Some man approached her, helping her up, causing black spots to appear in her vision. He asked her something, but his voice sounded distant. She was still struggling to breath. The man led her somewhere and sat her down.

"Breath in deeply." He told her. Ji Ah took a deep breath.

"Exhale slowly now."

Ji Ah exhaled slowly, and kept repeating till her wild heart calmed down.

The square faced, broad chested man was dressed in a professional black and white suit, that reminded her of thugs hired by rich villains in dramas.

But turned out he was a friend of her _Samchon_ and he had recognised her. Mr Seo had told her that nearly no one knew about Cha Ji Ah's existence, so how did he knew?

Ji Ah was wary of him when he offered to walk her to her Samchon's home. She politely declined the offer.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Ji Ah eyed the books on the shelf, trying to look nonchalant, while Mr Seo stared at her from behind the table, waiting for her begin explaining on her own.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

Ji Ah finally looked at him. "Ne."

"You look pale." He commented. "And your hands are shaking."

Ji Ah balled are hands into fists, and placed them in her lap.

"I took a cab actually. Because I was tired." She told him.

Just then Mr Seo's butler entered the study room, and set down a tray of water and orange juice on the table. Ji Ah grabbed the water glass and gulped it down.

"Why were you drunk last night?" He eventually asked.

Ji Ah placed the glass on the table. Mr Seo's butler had already left the study.

"I..I accidentally drank too much beer." She stammered out.

"But why did you drink?"

Ji Ah looked down at her hands in her lap, picking at her nails.

"I am sorry." She apologised.

Mr Seo stood up, and tucked his hands in his pockets. He moved around the table to stand in front of her. Ji Ah also stood up, feeling apprehensive. His extremely sharp features always made him look even more intimidating.

Mr Seo's gaze seemed somewhat gentle, but his tone was stern. "I am not asking you to apologise. I am asking you why did you drink?"

Ji Ah averted her gaze. He was totally angry, she was certain now. "I am sorry, Ahjussi." She apologised again.

Mr Seo pulled out his hands out of his trouser pockets abruptly, and Ji Ah flinched, drawing away. She raised a hand over her face defensively out of instincts, fearing that he may hit her.

Mr Seo's body went rigid.

His hand was frozen near the chair, and Ji Ah realised, with deep embarrassment, that he was pulling the chair to sit down beside her. He was not going to hit her.

She straightened up immediately, brushing back her hair and blinking several times, before looking him in the eyes. A prominent frown was etched across his face.

"Sit down." He said tonelessly.

Ji Ah did as he said, turning her chair to face him, and he also took sat down in the chair beside her.

"I wasn't going to hit you." He said in a soft manner, leaning forward in his chair.

"I am sorry."

"Stop apologising." He chided her gently.

Ji Ah's initial reaction was to apologise again, but she stopped herself, and nodded uneasily.

"You need to see a proper therapist." He said, and Ji Ah knew instantly where he was going. "Not just for your nightmares, but all your mental health issues. I have someone trustworthy, whom you can confide into truthfully."

"Ahjussi..." Ji Ah began tentatively, not really knowing how to put her thoughts into words for him. "Not now. I..I just have a lot on my mind lately. When I have cleared my mind a bit, then I will tell you myself and go see a therapist. I promise." She gave a small smile at the end.

Mr Seo looked like he was about to argue, but then thought better of it.

"Did you eat?" He asked.

"Ne?"

"Did you have something for lunch?"

"Oh," Ji Ah was caught of guard by the question. "Ye. I had noodles." She lied.

Mr Seo seemed to believe her, as he nodded and leaned back.

Before leaving, Ji Ah briefly mentioned the man who had claimed to be Mr Seo's friend to her, and to her relief, Mr Seo recognized the appearance description Ji Ah provided him. He was indeed Mr Seo's friend, and apparently knew Cha Ji Ah.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

As soon as Ji Ah was out of the room, Nam Gil moved back to his original seat behind the desk, and picked up his cellphone to dial Ahn Dan Te's number.

"Make someone get a proper profile of Hae Na Ri's father. I want to know what kind of person he is."

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

Ji Ah decided she would spend her sunday out. There was a theme park here somewhere, and she wanted to visit it, today. Just enough of sulking! She would improve her mental health on her own, and wouldn't need a therapist.

Beaming with a sudden burst of positivity, she stepped out of her apartment, but faltered when the chill rose goosebumps on her arms. She tightened the coat around herself. This cold was never going to leave her alone. It seemed specially cold today, though Ji Ah was not going to cancel her plans.

She had barely gone far when her phone vibrated: Mr Seo's text.

["m I too coldd?]

Ji Ah frowned at her cellphone screen in confusion.

Another text popped. ["Am I?"[

["Am I toooo controling?"

"I am not ditant."

"I am q stalker. Bit I am a good staker."

"Its not ma fault."

He continued to spam her inbox with nonsense texts. Was he, by any chance, drunk? Ji Ah thought with mild horror.

She dialed his number, and he picked up after two rings. "Ahjussi, are you ok?"

"Doo you want to drinkk with mee?" He slurred. Ji Ah removed the phone from her ear, and stared at it. He seemed _very_ drunk.

She placed the cellphone back to her ear. "Ahjussi, I am underage, I can't."

"Ah.. I forgot." He said. "Do you think I am cold?"

"Ne?"

"Or tooo controllingg?" He added.

Ji Ah scratched her head worriedly. It was very unlike him. He was a really calm and composed person usually. What could have happened for him to drink in daylight and behave like this?

"Everyone lovesss gifts. Then why doesn't shee?"

"Ahjussi, I will call you back after a while." She said before ending the call hurriedly, and dialing Ahn Dan Te's number.

He picked up after four rings. "What?" He grunted in his usual constantly irritated with life and everyone and everything manner.

"Ahjussi, Seo Ahjussi doesn't seem well. He is drunk and --"

"So what do I do?" He cut her off impatiently.

"You should go and check on him!" Ji Ah said crossly.

"It is sunday, not a working day. What is he doing right now, is none of my business."

"How can you be so--"

He didn't let her finish, and cut her off once again. "If you are so worried about your _Samchon_, then go see him yourself."

Ji Ah flamed up. "Eo! I will go see my _Samchon _on my own and tell him what a jerk he has for a secretary--"

The call disconnected.

Ji Ah scowled.

**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**

**Hello! Thank you guest 123. I think that's a good idea. I will put it up on wattpad too under the same username.**

**~Fawns**


	21. Chapter 21: A New Companion

**_•I don't own the Heirs_**

**_•I am sorry for uploading late and thank you for all the guest reviews too. I am doing a double update to make up for the late update :D_**

**A New Companion**

Mr Seo opened the door for her and Ji Ah took in his ruffled appreance. He looked nothing like the person she had last seen when she met him. Untidy hair, unguarded face and an unconfident posture.

He widened his glazed eyes at her, as if touched. "Are you heree to drinkk withh me?"

"Aniyo." She said nervously. "I..I came to..to talk about school!"

"Sschool?" Mr Seo furrowed his brows, and looked away with a somber expression. "She wantss to build a sschool too."

"What?"

He didn't reply, but turned his back to her and moved inside the house. She followed him worriedly through the dark; he had the lights dimmed, maybe to make it feel like night. Ji Ah resisted trying to hold him when he stumbled.

They moved into the living room and he flopped down on a double sofa. Ji Ah looked for the switch board and turned on the lights one by one. He winced, placing a hand over his eyes, while Ji Ah grimaced at the soju bottles scattered on the table, along with a glass, too big for something like soju.

He moved, grabbed a fresh bottle and broke its seal clumsily. Ji Ah scowled at him. Just yesterday he had been reprimanding her for drinking and now he himself was drinking like a drunkard.

She snatched the bottle from his hands before he could pour the alcohol into the glass.

"What are you ddoing?" He tried to glare at her, but it lacked the usual intensity of his gaze, so it didn't effect Ji Ah.

"You were upset yesterday because I drank carelessly. And now you are drinking like this?" She felt quite brave because Mr Seo was drunk right now.

"You can jooin me." He offered, as though bribing, while greedily eyeing the bottle clutched in her hands.

She scowled again. "I am an underage. You can be jailed for providing alcohol to an underage."

"Jail can be bettter." He muttered, looking away, his eyes glazing over again.

Ji Ah softened. She placed the bottle on the far end of the table, away from him, and sat down on the sofa closer to him. "What is wrong with you Ahjussi?"

She knew she was crossing her limits, as she wasn't on that friendly or intimate terms with him, but she couldn't help herself. Here was a man who saved her from hell, could she not even comfort him?

"Exactly!" He suddenly cried, and Ji Ah jumped in her seat, moving away from him apprehensively.

"Exactly, what is wrrong withh me?!" He fixed her with a look that Ji Ah could only decribe as child like. "I have done wrongg thingss." He slurred, clutching his head between his hands.

"What have you done?" Ji Ah asked, remembering the wrong things she had done. Was he like this because of the things he had to do to cover up for her?

He picked a notebook from beside him and threw it at her. She caught it instantly. "Here is a lisst of things of what I have done and what I have nott done."

Ji Ah flipped open the notebook, and caught an elegant handwriting on the very first page.

1\. You are too cold.

2\. You are too distant.

3\. Too posessive.

4\. Too jealous.

5\. Too controlling.

6\. Stalker.

7\. You give lots of gifts, but very little time.

8\. Always cancelling plans.

9\. Always busy with work.

10\. Stalker

11\. Your mother threatened me.

11\. You never care about my emotions.

12\. You don't like my dreams and ambitions.

13\. Stalker

14\. You threatened my secretary.

15\. You insulted my friends.

16\. You insulted me.

17\. Stalker

18\. You looked down upon me.

"She ssaid she will add more when she remembers them." Mr Seo said, staring at the soju bottle desolately.

Ji Ah finally realised what it was all about:

He had a break up.

"If she can't remember them now, then they are not worth remembering." She said, moving back to the sofa near him.

He suddenly lunged for the soju bottle, but Ji Ah was quick to grab it and hid it behind her back.

"Alcohol isn't the solution." She scolded him.

"Then what iss?" He fell back on the sofa, sprawling his arms like he had been shoot down. "Sshe wass the fourthh woman I had dated, and the one I reallyyy liked-- no loved! She leftt too."

Ji Ah moved to roll the bottles off the table, before sitting down on it. "Are all the reasons she has written for break up true?"

"Ssome of them are. Ssome aren't." He spoke after a pause, staring at the ceiling, and looking like a fallen soldier.

"Then instead of drinking your head off-- I mean, instead of drinking like this, you should work on fixing the things that are true, and sorting out the misunderstandings."

"She would still not return." He said hopelessly.

"How can you know when you haven't even tried." Ji Ah smiled reassuringly at him. "I don't know much about relationships, but I do know that you need to sort out your misunderstandings and fix the things that get in between your relationship, to keep them forever. Otherwise people drift away."

He turned his head to look at her, and she stood up.

"Where can I find a pen?" She asked him. He blinked at her in a daze for a moment, then motioned toward a shelf on the other side of the sofa set.

Ji Ah grabbed the pen, and clicked it once, before moving back to the table.

"We need to see the things that need to be fixed, and the misunderstandings that need to be sorted out." She said, looking over the notebook, imagining herself a detective trying to solve a complicated case.

He clumsily moved to a sitting position, and peered at the list once.

"Were you really too cold with her?" She asked him, already guessing the answer though.

He looked like a person who was convinced of his innocence, as he frowned at her. "Jusst a little. When she made me jealous."

"If you have an issue, you should sort it out by talking. Being cold just creates a distance between two people." Ji Ah had always seen couples and noted them. She herself never had a romantic relationship; Her father never allowed it.

Mr Seo gave her a pained look once before throwing back his head, and slumping against the sofa. "I never talkedd to her. I alwayss turrned coldd. That iss whyy she hatess me now."

"I am sure she doesn't hate you." Ji Ah didn't sound sure.

"Park Ssoo Mi hatess mee. Park Ssoo Mi hatess me. Park Ssoo Mi hatess mee..." He began to chant.

"She doesn't hate you!" Ji Ah said louder.

"Park Ssoo Mi hatess me. Park Ssoo Mi hatess mee..." He continued, indifferent.

Ji Ah sighed wearily. He was very unlike himself when he was drunk.

And she was very unlike herself too while he was drunk.

What if he confronted her tomorrow about showing up at his place and prodding into his personal life?

"Park Ssoo Mi hatess mee. Park Ssoo Mi hatess me..."

Ji Ah closed the notebook and stood up. "I think-- no, you really aren't in your right mind. You should rest now, Ahjussi."

He was too lost into his world to acknowledge her. "Park Ssoo Mi hatess mee. Park Ssoo Mi hatess mee..."

Ji Ah gave him a pitiful look, then slipped past him towards the hallway that lead to the entry door.

But she had barely crossed over to the hallway when he suddenly snapped out. "Where are you going?!"

Ji Ah jumped and whirled around. He was staring at her with troubled and bewildered wide eyes.

"I will see you tomorrow." She said.

"She will be hatingg mee moree by tomorroww." He widened his eyes even more.

Ji Ah scratched her head. "She will not be. Tomorrow, we will fix all your mistakes, and sort out the misunderstandings between you two, one by one." She tried to smile at him.

"You will helpp?" He gave her a hopeful look.

"Ye!" Ji Ah gave a big smile, while knowing very well that he would be scolding her tomorrow instead of asking for help. She shouldn't have come.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Ji Ah was prodding the piece of beef in boiling water with a fork--What was the point of going through all the trouble of cooking when you couldn't even taste the taste-- when her phone rang again.

She placed the fork aside, and picked up her phone from the counter, declining Young Do's call for the fourth time in a day.

He was making her more uneasy about going to school than Kim Tan already did.

Ji Ah made a mental note to ask Kim Tan as to what was the issue between him and Young Do, whenever she got the chance.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Ji Ah locked her apartment door and made to move away when she spotted him. She stopped there.

He was often sitting there, at the end of street, toward the closer curve, staring at the sky. During the day, he would be staring at the road ahead. Although one thing would be constant: the frown on his face.

Ji Ah wasn't the one to approach strangers so easily, but now she found herself walking over to him. Maybe it was because he seemed younger than her, and less intimidating with his thin body and short height.

"Urm.. it is beautiful. Isn't it..?" She said awkwardly, gazing at the sky, while standing beside him, faintly remembering the night she had gotten drunk in front of Young Do.

The boy didn't look startled, but he did eye her warily, likely thinking why was this girl talking to him?

Then he went back to staring at the sky.

Ji Ah fidgted a little on her feet. "Do you live around here?"

She knew he did. She was just trying to make a conversation.

He looked at her again, this time a little annoyed, but he nodded silently.

"Oh I live here too." Ji Ah said, smiling pleasantly, and gesturing toward her apartment.

He glanced at her apartment door, then back to her, before moving his hands.

Sign language. Ji Ah recognised instantly because she had learned it at a campaign in school once.

_"I know" _he signed._"I have seen your here before." _

"Ohh.." Ji Ah now understood why was he always quiet. "Erm.. I am going for a walk after dinner. Will you join me?" She offered, hoping to make a friend.

He turned away from her. _"I will not be having dinner tonight." _

"Why?" She asked. "Do you not feel like eating?"

He didn't sign anything and just turned back to the sky, and Ji Ah realised what he meant.

She should had been quicker, because she had those days too when she was not allowed food because she had disobeyed her father. She wondered if he were also not allowed food tonight or he just didn't have it.

She abruptly remembered all the food stacked in her freezer. It was a waste for her to eat it boiled when someone else could enjoy them better.

"Do you want to eat with me?" She said cautiously, already guessing that he was going to refuse.

He looked at her, frowning deeper.

"Maybe you will feel like eating if you ate with someone." She said, pretending that she didn't know.

He looked hesitant, like he wanted to say yes, but didn't know how.

"Come in." Ji Ah said, and moved to her apartment door to unlock it. She was trying to make it easy for him.

He eyed the street with a few people here and there, then with reluctant movements, he stood up and walked over to her apartment. Maybe he was also hesitant to trust her. Like who was this girl offering to eat with me out of nowhere. Nonetheless, when Ji Ah went inside, he followed her.

She immediately went over to the freezer, while he checked out her small apartment curiously. Ji Ah hissed upon remembering that she had no spices at home.

She turned to him. "Wait here, I will be back in 5 minutes."

He gave her a confused look, but she hurried out of the apartment.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Ji Ah placed the sizzling steaks on plates, then sprinkled some coriander on it, and then placed one plate on the counter in front of the boy whose name she still didn't know, and one in front of herself.

He stared at the steak in his plate the same way Ji Ah had done when she had had steak for the first time in Seoul.

"Eat a lot!" Ji Ah beamed at him, slicing the knife into the tender meat, breathing in its enticing aroma and trying to taste it through the scent. She had cooked one for herself too because it would have seemed bizzare for her to eat the boiled beef while he ate steak in her own apartment.

He looked up, gave her an astonished look, then quickly grabbed the knife and fork and began working on cutting the steak.

They ate in silence. He was so engrossed into the juicy steak that he seemed to have forgotten about her existence altogether, so she didn't bother him.

Ji Ah smiled wistfully, remembering how she had devoured a steak in a restaurant when she had first come here. How long ago was that? A year ago? Two years ago?

No, that was just 4 or 5 months ago.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

**Toraffles: Thank you for such a detailed review, I really appreciate it. I checked your story too, and you seem like an experienced writer.**

**Na Ri had to do stupid things to be able to be here. There are many times we do things on impulse then we later think what even made me do that?**

**I had this plot idea in my head and I wanted to make this into an original work, but Na Ri only suited in this Heirs universe.**

**I know I am overdoing with ye,ne, eo, but I just can't get the feel. i feel like I am writing an american novel or something. ye, ne, eo keeps reminding me that I am supposed to be into the Heirs. **

**Hahaha,**** the interesting scene you mentioned: It's not that Young Do's chest was peaceful or something, its that _NA Ri _felt peaceful there. It wasn't how it was, it's how she felt.**

**Once again, I really appreciate your review. That's the longest and detailed one I had. Thank you. **

**_~Fawns_**


	22. Chapter 22: I See You As A Woman

**_•I don't own the Heirs._**

•**_Pardon my terrible english._**

**_•I realised that some of you may hate my OC, but it's ok, she hates herself too. :)_**

**I See You As a Woman**

"Moon Sik?" Ji Ah read his name from the notebook where he had scribbled it.

Moon Sik nodded, looking at her curiously. _"What's your name?" _

"I am Cha Ji Ah." She gave a small smile.

He rested his elbow on the empty counter. _"You live alone?" _

Ji Ab hesitated. Moon Sik didn't look like danger, still she was on good terms with paranoia a lot nowdays.

"Eo, I live alone." She said. "What about you?"

_"I live with my grandmother." _

"What about your parents?" The question was out of her mouth before she could stop herself..and the answer was nothing unexpected.

_"They are dead."_ He signed.

Ji Ah didn't say anything. She always felt people's sorrys were merely false sympathy whenever someone she had hardly known would say sorry about her mother.

_"What about you?"_ He signed and peered into her eyes, as though looking for the answer there. _"Where are your parents?" _

"They are dead, too." She said tonelessly, averting her gaze.

He also didn't sign a sorry, though something did change about his expressions. After a silent moment between them, he motioned toward her Jeguk uniform hanging on a wall. _"Do you go to that school?" _

Ji Ah hadn't thought much about it. She hadn't thought think how pecuilar she must appear to him.

"Eo." She said, as she also glanced at her uniform once. "Do you go to school, too? What year are you in?"

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Ji Ah had just put on her uniform when the doorbell rang.

Mr Seo stood outside with an unconcealed faint grimace crossing his face. Ji Ah's heart gave a leap. She was in trouble.

She greeted him, as he walked in, holding some bags, which he placed on the pale counter.

"You have been living here?" He scrutinized her apartment with distaste.

Ji Ah screwed her face in confusion. Wasn't he the one who found this apartment for her?

"Ye, you found this for me." She said, politely.

He gave her a faint frown. "I didn't. I had told Dan Te-ssi to find a suitable apartment for you. He didn't tell me that he found _this_\--," He threw a disgruntled look at the apartment. "--for you."

"Ohh.." Ji Ah didn't know what else to say. She didn't mind living here at all. "Please sit down." She gestured toward the sitting area.

They both arranged themselves across from each other in the sitting area, and an awkward silence settled over them. Ji Ah toyed with her fingers while Mr Seo stared off into space.

Then unexpectedly, he flipped out the notebook from yesterday and placed it on the table in front of her. He still didn't look at her.

Ji Ah's eyes bounced back and forth between him and the notebook, befuddled.

Eventually Mr Seo cleared his throat, his face void of any discernable emotion. "You said you would help."

For a few moments, Ji Ah's mind went blank. Then it clicked and her eyes widened.

He was not offended. He wanted her to help him. She found it so hard to believe, but she did.

She began stammering. "Yes... I can. I mean I can try..."

Now he looked at her slowly. Ji Ah thought he seemed rather embarassed, but surprisingly not as embarassed or angry as she had expected him to.

"How?" He asked.

"Umm..let's see." Ji Ah reluctantly picked up the notebook and flipped it open. "We need to see where do you need to clear your misunderstandings, and where do you need to apologise, and... well where do you need to.. change your behavior..." She said uneasily.

Nevertheless, he seemed eager to know.

Ji Ah straightened up and began. "Is it true you have been too cold with her?"

"No." He replied at once. "Maybe just a few times, but not really.." He didn't sound sure at all.

"Umm.. maybe you should ask her when does she think you have been cold with her and then apologise snd change your behavior in future then..?"

He averted his gaze as though embarassed.

Ji Ah coughed and continued. "I don't have much knowledge or experience, but I do know that in a relationship, there should only be warmness, not coldness.

How are you supposed to melt someone else's heart when your own is frozen cold?"

A clear frown appeared on Mr Seo's face, and Ji Ah wondered nervously if her words were too harsh.

She worked furthe on the list and they discussed everything. Mr Seo's mask melted away gradually, as he dived down into the emotions, seemingly unconsciously dropping his guards.

By the time they had reached the 6th reason in the list of reason why Park Soo Mi left Mr Seo, while having breakfast, he appeared to have forgotten altogther that Ji Ah wasn't his actual niece, and Ji Ah had forgotten that Mr Seo wasn't her actual Samchon.

Though while leaving, when it was time for Ji Ah to also leave for school, Mr Seo picked up his mask and fixed it on his face again, and Ji Ah crawled back into her awkwardness and timidness that she always felt with him.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

The first gossip of the day at school was that Moon Joon Young had left.

Ji Ah felt a pinch at her heart. She knew what dreams he must have, being a scholarship student, and how desperately he would have wanted to achieve them for him to last this long in this school filled with these spoiled rich brats.

Though, she had also heard that Young Do took back the lawsuit. It had both surpised and confused her.

Ji Ah gave a deep sigh, looking up at the desolate blue of the sky. Just then Kim Tan appeared in front of her out of nowhere, for the thousandth time.

"I told you not to wear this clip." He whined like a child.

"I like it." Ji Ah decided to be stubborn too.

"I don't." With that, he snatched the clip from her hair again.

"Ya, you are breaking my hair!" She brushed back her hear neatly. "Give me my clip back."

Kim Tan dug a hand into his pocket and pulled out a pretty sparkly white hair clip. "I have something else for you."

Ji Ah scowled. Why didn't he understand?

He ignored her discomfort and stepped closer, into her personal space. He didn't give her the chance to back away, as he fixed the sparkly white har clip on one side of her head.

"Now," He said, smiling heartily. "You are even more prettier."

Ji Ah's cheeks warmed up. Their eyes remained connected for more time than necessary, before Ji Ah stepped back and touched the hair clip, feeling its protruding design.

He pulled away her hand gently. "Don't you dare take it off."

He gave her one last heart melting smile and thrust his hands into his pockets and walked past her to leave.

Ji Ah sighed again, her hand going up on its own to touch the clip one more time. Slumped shouldered, she also turned away to leave, but froze instantly. Her heart gave a jump upon seeing someone.

Young Do was standing on the stairs, hands tucked in the pockets, and glaring down at her with lowered eyebrows.

_He saw everything. _

Ji Ah removed her hand from the clip and turned away from his wrathful gaze. He looked angry and scary.

She winced, as she had always said there was nothing between her and Kim Tan. This may give Young Do some wrong idea.

She glanced back at him before leaving and he still had a sour look over his features, as though she had done something terrible.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

Ji Ah felt like she didn't come to school to study, but to play avoiding games with eveyone. Avoid Kim Tan. Avoid Choi Young Do. Avoid Yoo Rachel. Avoid the gossip girls.

And on some days, she was a terrible player in this game. Like today.

Ji Ah tidied up her notes, revised them and opened the textbook to study some more. She was studying in the hall today as she was tired of hiding in the library all the time.

But it proved to be a terrible choice when Young Do unexpectedly pulled the chair opposite from her and sat down with a slight tight lipped smile etched across his mouth.

Ji Ah resisted the third sigh of the day. She went back to writing in her notebook, acting as though his presence was unimportant --which really was to her.

"What are you doing?" He leaned over to peer into her notebook. Ji Ah didn't acknowledge him, as she put down a definition she was trying to memorize.

"Don't you always study in the library?"

Ji Ah felt that he was mocking her. She ignored him again.

"Ya!" He rapped a fist softly on the table. Ji Ah stayed resolutely indifferent.

"Don't ignore me.." He threatened.

Ji Ah was considering gathering up her stuff and leaving, but Young Do didn't give her the chance.

He leaned back in his chair, seemingly relaxed. Then with a sudden swipe of his arm, he swiftly knocked everything off the table.

Ji Ah flinched back, dropping her pen on the table. It rolled off to fall down on the floor noisily.

"What's your problem?!" Ji Ah couldn't help her temper rising, along with her voice. Everyone was already staring now. She hated him. He always put her in situations like this.

Young Do crossed his arms over his chest, and he had the constantly angry look. He gave that look to everyone else present in the hall and they stopped staring and went about their business.

He turned back to her. "I told you not to ignore me. I hate it the most when you ignore me."

Ji Ah barely noted the dark edge to his tone. "Do you ever say anything worth paying attention to?"

Young Do raised his eyebrows. "Does Kim Tan says anything _worth paying attention to?_ because you pay him lot of attention."

The meaningful tone of his both irritated and unnerved her.

"Kim Tan is different from you." The words were out of her mouth before she could catch them. She almost winced out loud.

Something changed about Young Do's expressions. It unnerved her even more.

"How so?" He drawled with an eerie calmness.

Ji Ah struggled internally to answer him, but couldn't come up with anything safe to say.

He noticed her discomfort. "What is it about Kim Tan that is _so _different?"

Annoyance seeped into her again. "He had never been bad to me. That's what's different."

"Aish! Do you only see me as a bad guy?" He made a fake hurt kind of face.

"Eo." Ji Ah replied coldly.

He gave a smile that didn't reach his eyes and lacked the usual smugness. "Too bad, I see you as a woman."

Ji Ah tried to glare hard at him, but it was too much for her. She got up, unsettled by his demeanour and bent down to collect her stuff hurriedly with clumsy movements.

There was a disconcerting feeling in her stomach. He purposely said things that would unsettle her. Perhaps he was trying to play with her because he assumed she and Kim Tan had something.

Young Do also got up, coming to stand in front of her, then stretching and groaning.

Ji Ah almost bared her teeth at him, tempted to curse him when he placed a foot down on her notebook intentionally. What was his enmity with her notebooks?

Suddenly, he snatched out her clip from her hair.

Ji Ah stood up at once. "What are you doing?"

Young Do was scrutinizing the snowy white hair clip with distaste. "What an ugly clip!"

Ji Ah stared at the clip with apprehension and quickly reached out for it. "You are no one to judge."

As usual, he moved his hand out of her reach.

"Give it back." She demanded.

"Araso," He said, too easily and held out the clip to her. "Take it."

Ji Ah reached out again to grab the clip, but he let go of it before she could take it.

"Sorry!" He smirked at her.

Ji Ah stepped back to bend down and retrieve her clip, but before she could even bend down, Young Do's foot came down heavily on the clip and crushed it, like stubbing out a ciggerate.

Ji Ah inhaled a sharp breath, as a few crunching noises came from underneath Young Do's foot. She wasn't certain whether it was the sound of the clip breaking or her heart.

**_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_**

**I upload as soon as I have written new chapters, and I have been writing slowly due to some reason. Though I will never abandone this story. Thank you for reviews and reads. :)**

**_~Fawns. _**


	23. Chapter 23: I Was Feeling Lonely

**Chapter 23**

_ **I Was Feeling Lonely, So Here I Am**_

Young Do withdrew his foot and revealed her pretty white clip, its flower broken, color scratched off and its clipping area separated.

Ji Ah sank down and grabbed the broken remains of her hair clip, the clip Kim Tan had given her.

She brushed a finger on the white flower with half its color scratched off. The clip was beyond repair now.

What exactly was his problem?

Flaring up, she raised her head, ready to actually snarl at him this time, but Young Do had already gone.

Ji Ah glanced around. A few people were staring at her sitting on the floor, yet Young Do was nowhere to be seen.

She had thought before that he had some nuts loose. Now she decided that he didnt have some nuts loose, in fact none of his nuts were in right place.

He was just...arghh!

He made her want to rip some paper to shreds, or break some glass to pieces, or scream in her pillow till her landlady threatened to kick her out. He was like that. Volatile, violent, arrogant, a spoiled rich brat and a bloody bastard who was bringing her into whatever enmity he and Kim tan had with each other.

With all his behavior, if Ji Ah didn't know he had something against Kim Tan, she would have assumed that Young Do was jealous.

* * *

Walking home from work, Ji Ah was still thinking about what she was going to tell Kim Tan about the clip.

If she told him that Young Do broke it, it would most likely lead to a fight. And if she told him that Ji Ah herself accidentally broke it, then...

_"Hey, remember the clip you gifted me? I broke it on the same day you gave me the clip. Even though I didn't want to take it initially, but I didnt break it on purpose. I swear totally!"__Kim Tan looked at her coldly. "You killed my love first. Now you broke the clip I bought for her face too? Get the hell out of my sight. Go die somewhere you murderer!"_

Ji Ah gasped, as someone suddenly pulled her out of the way of a honking car.

The blinding lights brought two memories in front of her eyes quite vividly.

Flashing lights of a car speeding, and a truck hurtling at her...

She sucked in fresh breaths. Someone patted her shoulder and she finally saw who had saved her.

Moon sik stared at her with troubled eyes. _"Are you alright?"_ He signed.

* * *

Using a pair of tongs, Ji Ah lifted the crabs out of the pot and placed them in the wide dish in front of Moon Sik.

Mr Seo had brought more food when he came to visit, despite Ji Ah's persistent protests. She had now accepted it because of Moon Sik.

Moon Sik gave her the same look he had given her last time. Ji Ah knew he had seen the piles of food in her freezer when she had taken out the crabs, and he must have many questions.

When the crabs cooled down enough, they both began cracking the legs to eat. After the meal. they both went out for a walk together.

_"Where do you get all this food from?" _He asked, as they passed a bunch of loud kids gathered around a candy seller.

"Umm... these.. I get them from the place I work at. They give the extra food to the workers."

Moon Sik gave her a dubious look. "_That's a very nice place you work at."_

"Ah I was wondering, what does your grandma do?" She tried to change the topic, quite so obviously she realised.

Thankfully, he didn't ask more questions. She had always walked alone. It felt good to be in someone's company for a while. Ji Ah didn't want to loss this company by lying too much. No one liked liars.

* * *

It was the result day. Ji Ah hurried to the hall to check her rank, though she felt no particular anxiety. She was happy with any rank, because no one was waiting at home for her now.

A crowd was gathered around the board, Myung So at the front and Kim Tan and Young Do at the end. Myung So's body seemed to be hiding the results, as he checked his.

Myung So turned and said something, while laughing and pointing at Kim Tan and Young Do. Everyone else also began laughing.

When they started to clear off, Ji Ah quietly came to stand behind Kim Tan and Young Do. Young Do saw something on the board and snorted at Kim Tan too, before noticing Ji Ah and faltering.

Ji Ah spotted her rank quickly in the top ten. The 4th rank. Before she could go any lower to see what was making everyone laugh, Kim Tan and Young Do both moved to stand in front of her and block the view.

"What are you doing?" Ji Ah asked, perplexed.

"You got a bad rank." Young Do said.

"Yes," Kim Tan confirmed. "Go back.

Ji Ah narrowed her eyes at them. "Still, let me see it." She walked around them and they seemed to be trying to restraining themselves from grabbing her arm.

Searching a little, Ji Ah found Young Do at 95th and Kim Tan at 99th. She turned to give them both blank looks. They appeared irritated. They didnt have the right to be. They had told her she got a bad rank to hide their ranks.

But Ji Ah softened, promptly feeling bad for Kim Tan. She had some idea as to why he was at 99th.

Kim Tan wandered off, looking dismayed. She felt even more bad for him.

"Congrats on the 4th rank," Young Do said.

Ji Ah tried to give him a cool look, suppressing an impish smile. "This is what happens when you waste your time throwing paper balls at a girl at school."

Young Do didn't look like he was expecting something like that.

Childishly pleased with herself at having succesfully insulted Young Do at least once in her lifetime, Ji Ah bounced through the hall.

She didn't know his reasons.

* * *

In library, Ji Ah was checking the names of some books she noted in her cellphone. At the end of the aisle, she ran into Kim Tan. Or perhaps he was waiting there for here.

"You didn't like the clip?" Kim Tan eyed the spot on her hair which was previously occupied by the sparkly white clip.

Ji Ah began stammering and babbling. "It isn't like that... actually I... I dropped it on my way back home. I always walk, so I must have dropped it somewhere. I didn't notice untill I got home and --." .

He waved his hand. "Forget about the clip then," he said, brightening up. "I would get you another one. This isn't what I had wanted to talk about."

Ji Ah felt relieved. She had thought he would be terribly upset. "What is it then?"

"There is this new restaurant opened near your workplace, and they told me that they specially wanted_ us _to try out their food and review. So we are going for dinner there tonight."

Ji Ah blinked blankly.

He gave her a handsome smile. "I will wait for you after your shift is over, then we can walk together to the restaurant."

Despite his heart melting smile, Ji Ah sobered up. A part of her wanted, a part of her didn't. She knew this was a path that wasn't meant for her, so she should stay away.

"...I don't think that's possible." She said quietly.

"Why not? Wouldn't you have dinner tonight? Let me buy you it."

Ji Ah casted her gaze downwards. "I don't think that's a good idea, Kim Tan."

Kim Tan paused before speaking. "Why do you run from me?"

The question was so abrupt and unexpected that it caught Ji Ah off guard. She looked up in surpise.

"Don't make excuses." Gone was his smile. "I want to get to know you, I want to be closer to you, but you are always..."

"I am sorry," _but you should not. _

"If you are sorry, then let's meet at dinner."

Ji Ah looked at him helplessly. She shouldn't, she really shouldnt, given that Mr Seo had also warned her, also given that he used to be _her _boyfriend and Ji Ah should be ashamed to even linger close to him, given that his kindness wasn't for her in the first place.

Kim Tan took her cellphone from her hand and began saving his number in it. "When you make up your mind for sure, give me a call. Though I would still show up in front of you even if you don't wish to see me."

With that, he was gone.

After Ji Ah's piano practice, Mr Seo and Ji Ah sat in his spacious lounge. The notebook that contained reasons for Mr Seo's break up was lying in front of them on the table.

"I told her that I would never object to her working in any romantic film or drama, and I wouldn't treat her male co workers coldly." Mr Seo said.

"You would simply never interfere in her professional life." Ji Ah tried to smile politely.

"Yes...But she says thats just one of the many reasons why we broke up." A line appeared between Mr Seo's brows.

"Then let's work on every reason." Ji Ah said. "Let's see, there is a certain word repeating in your list?"

"Stalker..." He said delicately, like the word had some enmity with him.

"Yes. Have you ever stalked her?"

"...a few times."

"That's still stalking."

"I did it because I was worried for her."

"But its creepy." Ji Ah was hesitant in saying.

"I will apologize for that, too." Mr Seo nodded.

"Now, reason number 7 and 8?" Ji Ah looked at him for explanation.

Mr Seo's butler came just then and placed a tray of hot steaming coffees on the table, then left.

"It just happened." Mr Seo said. He was sitting with his shoulders straigt and leg over leg, but he didn't sound anything like his posture. "You have seen how busy I am. There are days when I don't have time for myself. I have to cancel plans with Soo Mi then too. So, to make up for that, I send her some gift."

Ji Ah fidgeted uneasily. In all this, he had taken so much time out for her too. Not to forget the piano lessons. She wondered if she had some part in Mr Seo's break up too?

She cleared her throat, feeling awkward and uneasy. "Ahjussi, I dont think gifts can fill up your absence. Unnie cant talk to shoes and dressed. She needs [you]"

Mr Seo turned poker faced. "I know."

"Think about it, Ahjussi. If you can give her your time and unreserved emotions in future, then continue this. Or we should close this notebook right here."

Mr Seo looked at her intensely, throwing her off for an instant. "At times you seem far more mature than your age. And at times you are plain stupid."

He was too forward sometimes.

"I maintain balance." Ji Ah chuckled awkwardly. But in all honesty, it made Ji Ah feel good to help Mr Seo in any way. She was not sure why someone like him was letting her un into his personal life, but she just went along with it. Somewhere deep inside, it made her feel important.

"I want to continue this." He said. "I will fix every complain she had with me and then start afresh."

"Then we should go further." Ji Ah said enthusiastically and placed the notebook in front of him. "Number 11, 14 and 15."

Mr Seo picked the coffee cup and gestured for her, too. Ji Ah also picked up the other one.

"Eomeoni never liked Park Soo Mi because of her profession. She had once met her somewhere without my knowledge --now you see why I stalk her-- and they had some sort of squabble."

Ji Ah listened intently. Having met the intimidating mother of Mr Seo, she felt a deep sympathy for Park Soo Mi.

"But later Eomeoni came to my office and told me that Soo Mi had insulted her. A few minutes after she left, Soo Mi also came to my office and told me that Eomeoni had insulted her."

Ji Ah's sympathies moved to Mr Seo now.

"Apparently, both of them had insulted each other in some ways." He said dryly.

"Well... for this I will say that arrange a meeting for Unnie and Halmeonim? When they are in a good mood."

Mr Seo looked at her skeptically.

"You don't have to take anyone's side." She said. "You just have to help them make peace with each other. Make both of them realise that they are both a source of joy to you.

And you can't bear to loss either of them."

* * *

Ji Ah glanced at the clock hung over the main door. There was half an hour left till her shift ended.

If she called Kim Tan right now, he would be here by the end of her shift.

She dismissed the idea immediately. Besides he said he would be here even if she didn't want to see him.

However, turned out there wasn't much work to do today, so she was let off earlier than usual. She walked out of the restaurant, hands stuffed in her buttoned coat, shoulders raised due to cold. But stopped short upon seeing him.

Young Do was leaning against his bike with his arms crossed over his chest, wearing a black leather jacket. He straightened up upon seeing her.

"Get on." He motioned to his bike with a jerk of his head. "We are going somewhere."

Ji Ah gave him a are you crazy look. "Why would I?"

"Why would you not? There are many students who are curious as to what tutor did you hire." He leaned forward. "Did your Samchon get a tutor for you?"

Ji Ah was sure he was worsening her OCD, because lately she had been having compulsive urges to claw at his face.

* * *

**Told you, I would not abandon this.**

**I am sorry for disappearing. It would happen again, but I will be back. This story's special to me.**

**Would try to update the next chapter soon. Seriously love you all, and sorry again. :) **


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